Want more than what you see here? Get the monthly newsletter, new for 2011.

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.

[ Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2010 is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Like this post? Get my Internet Marketing newsletter, buy my book, The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, and subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

In the past few years, video has come a long way. As someone who once didn’t like online video, it’s now part of my daily life. In the past few years, videos have gotten much better and widespread that I’d find it hard to be stubborn in my old ways by ignoring all incoming multimedia streams. Today, video’s potential is obvious: it can be a marketer’s dream and yield tremendous successes. Indeed, I’ve discovered some incredible video that I can watch again and again. Here are seven video examples that have become viral phenomenons in their own right. Let’s take a look at what set these guys apart from their contenders.

Identifiable

Do something that other people can relate to. When Weezer came out with Pork and Beans in 2008, the band’s music video introduced a completely different concept with characters that were incredibly familiar. The Pork and Beans video enlisted in familiar faces across the YouTube culture. Because the video celebrities themselves were familiar to millions of spectators, the music video caught on virally. The original video, which is now private, had seen over 4 million views in its first four days, and was at over 20 million views until it was made private.

Highlight something that people are accustomed to. That’s why so many spoofs of David after Dentist actually saw hundreds of thousands of video views, and it’s also why Kanye West’s Taylor Swift Outburst brought Obama to shame (and people still watched it!).

Spontaneous

Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz were just your average couple until they turned their wedding into something far more memorable. By engaging the wedding party and having them dance down the aisle spontaneously, people watching the resultant video really felt the momentum. They got excited. They laughed. Some even cried. It was a beautiful moment for Jill and Kevin, but it was also a beautiful moment for those of us watching the video from our home computers thousands of miles away.

The power of the unexpected can move your video to great heights. It’s why Susan Boyle’s “Britain’s Got Talent” audition video is now hovering at 86 million views. It’s why she is now famous. It’s why T-Mobile succeeded with a flash mob. And it’s why Jill and Kevin will definitely forever be remembered in our hearts.

Let’s take it a step further, though, with a “shocking” element. Videos that have a completely unplanned “wow” element to them definitely travel far in social circles. It’s more than just the JK Wedding Dance video, which was a heartwarming feel-good video with preparation. Taking the idea beyond the unexpected, these videos evoke some emotion because of sheer luck — or just the opposite.

Shocking videos are why it’s been 3 months, but I’m still in awe after watching this video. It’s why many people gasped when they saw this wedding get ruined. It’s also why this movie stunt was almost believable.

Genuine

You don’t always have to engage in expensive video production to promote your wares, nor as the marketer do you have to create the video yourself. With over 1 billion video views on YouTube per day, if you have a great video that shows your passion for the product and the right audience comes along, you can find your video in the spotlight.

The video above is one of the first iPod touch commercials. Would you have known that it was created by an 18-year-old student in his spare time? Nick Haley created the video at home for fun and uploaded it to YouTube. Once online, it caught the attention of executives at Apple who flew him into California to make it a commercial reality.

Showing your passion can translate to opportunities down the road too. Fede Alvarez published a small film to YouTube a few weeks ago, and it landed him a $30 million movie deal. And this Trader Joe’s commercial is pretty awesome and got some good visibility.

Think you don’t have what it takes to be creative in-house? Why not ask your customers to try their hand at video production for you?

Funny

Don’t you like making people smile? Most people do. It goes without saying that funny videos are highly shareable and can yield that desired result. It’s why Yatta has been passed on in various iterations for years.

Humans can relate to emotional content, and laughable content is always golden. It’s why Pearl and Will Ferrell’s landlord fight has been watched nearly 70 million times. It’s why this baby video of girls being natural talkers always makes me giggle. It’s why songs like this translate to tweets, remixes, and playoff game invitations. It’s why I laugh every time at this BBC Guy Kewney Goma mix-up (and even posted about it once before).

Informational

Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

If you’re in need of viral content, you don’t have to look much farther than videos that teach users how to do something. These videos can be very basic, from how to tie a tie, to more complex videos with multiple steps, such as skipping out on room service to make a gourmet dinner in a hotel room. Anne-Marie Faiola of Brambleberry, also known as Soap Queen TV, does this very well. Candy Soap, anyone?

On a similar note, you can also show someone how something is done. One of my favorite viral videos of all time was one I first watched when I was in preschool but it stayed with me for a good twenty-some-odd years. Don’t you want to know how crayons are made? Taking someone into the office of your busy-at-work programmers or directly into your manufacturing plant to see the process of creation can be really fascinating from an outsider’s perspective.

Creative

Creative videos can become worldwide phenomenons, just like the Hibi no Neiro music video which scored it a YouTube award in Japan.

Adding the right spice of creativity and doing something that is unique and never tried before can bring that video views and awareness. It’s why these European students made a video that hundreds of thousands of people enjoyed, and why this Tetris video was so fun to watch. It’s why I jump up with glee when I watch these kitties and their owner play together. It’s why our eyes opened up when we watched how exactly why our definition of beauty is distorted. It’s why time lapses are so much fun to watch.

Inspiring

Want to watch a video that’s nothing like the above but motivates you to do your best? Inspiring videos, too, can be viral. Randy Pausch, a former lecturer at Carnegie Mellon, inspired not only students in his class but the world in his last ever speech before he passed away from pancreatic cancer.

It’s why Paul Potts also rose to the top; it inspired every one of us to chase after our dreams. It’s why anything is possible after watching Nick Vujicic do it. It’s why the future looks exciting thanks to movies, and why we all feel great when discovering that through the story of man and animal, love is never truly forgotten.

There you have it: seven viral video characteristics that start the conversations and get the wheels turning. If you’re looking to craft a viral video, consider meeting at least one of these characteristics: identifiability, spontaneity, genuineness, humor, information, creativity, and inspiration. Ideally, if you cover ground on at least two of these traits, your video might have a good chance of success. To be sure, though, solicit feedback from a group of trusted peers not directly involved in your company or marketing objectives before going ahead with publishing the video, since you need an unbiased opinion. Do this before you upload it to YouTube; for a video to achieve viral status on YouTube, it needs to pick up steam as soon as it’s uploaded.

Am I missing any? What are your favorite videos, and why?

[ 7 Traits of Highly Effective Viral Videos is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

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It’s my birthday! And like last year, I have a gift for you.

Every year, I read hundreds (thousands?) of articles on the topic of Internet Marketing, from SEO to social media to web usability and then some. And every year, I hand pick the best articles that I’ve read and compile them in a resource that I hope will last a long time. Here’s my list for 2008. Here’s 2007. Here’s 2006. I painstakingly go through these resources with the hopes that these posts will serve as references for you in years to come. Yes, that’s right. Despite the changing landscape, the articles I list here are typically those that I feel are “timeless” in that they could be referenced in the future and still have utility. These posts are not in response to newsworthy events, nor are they displayed in any particular order. They are strategic guides that hopefully will enhance your internet marketing experiences in the future.

Every year, I can only read so many articles. I try to keep this as exhaustive as possible, but even so, I don’t know every great resource. Like last year, I enlisted in help from my followers on Twitter, many of whom gave me some great posts to add to this list. If you’re looking to be included on 2010′s list, you now know what to do.

Like last year, if your article is highlighted in this comprehensive post, there’s a badge for you to proudly celebrate this achievement on your site. Thanks again to David Mihm who specializes in Portland Web Design for creating them. Scroll down to the bottom of the post to grab the code you need for your post or site.

Without further ado, I now present to you the best internet marketing posts of 2009.

Social Media: Getting Started

• Why You Have to Engage in Social Media, Even if You Don’t Want to (A Smart Bear): Jason Cohen (@asmartbear) makes a compelling argument into why social media must be considered, even if you have no interest in it. The article has examples of how social media worked too.
• The Poetry of Social Networking to Court Customers and Invest in Relationships (Brian Solis): Brian Solis shares his foreword to Sean Percival’s book, MySpace Marketing.  In it, he offers some thought-provoking insights into what must be understood before going into social media marketing.  And… Brian Solis is the most eloquent writer I have ever seen in the blogosphere.  This post is really poetry, as are all his other writings and blog posts.
• 40 Key Elements to Getting Started in Social Media (Louis Gray): Mike Fruchter writes an awesome blog post on Louis Gray’s blog about how to get involved in social media, from branding to blogging to Twitter to community. It’s definitely a worthwhile read.
• Marketing on the Social Web: A Few Key Ingredients (Michael Fruchter): I love the graphic. But more than that, Mike’s post explains that social media is really about using social channels appropriately to communicate and converse — and as an extension of that, you might just end up being able to sell something. It’s really not that hard!
• How Big Brands Can Start Testing Social Media (Conversation Agent): It’s really not that hard to get into social media marketing. It just requires a small shift in mindset.
• Why Social Media is Scary (Steve Radick): Why is social media scary? There are challenges to be overcome by junior employees, developers, managers, and even senior leadership. Steve Radick tackles them all in this post.
• The ABCs of Online Networking (Your Job Stop): I love Joanna Lord’s article — every single letter of the alphabet has an application in online networking. Don’t overlook these — at least consider them!
• What Social Media is and What Social Media is Not (Louis Gray): So many people don’t get what social media is. Mike saves the day by straightening them out.
• Is it Too Late to Catch Up? (Seth Godin): Seth Godin suggests ideas that will make social media slowly work for you as an organization.
• Creating Your Social Media Plan (Outspoken Media): This good primer talks about securing your brand, setting metrics, knowing who you are, setting a presence, engaging, and assessing success.
• 6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Roadmap and Plan (Green Marketing 2.0): Lorna Li writes very introductory post on what social media is and what you can do with it with some great insights.
• A Corporate Guide for Social Media (Forbes): Forbes actually gets it when it comes to social media strategy in the workplace. Have a read and see for yourself.
• 20 Ways to Drive Leads Through Social Media (Kyle Lacy): Here are some of the things you can do to start seeing some movement in this thing they call “social media marketing.”
• 10 Tips for Social Media Marketers (PR Squared): Todd Defren tells you how to jump into social media marketing. What can you do today?
• How to Create Measurable Objectives (Altitude Branding): We’ve talked about goals and strategies as it relates to social media marketing, but let’s break them down even further.

Social Media: Implementation and Execution

• 7 Reasons Why Social Media Marketing Campaigns Fail, and How to Fix them (Stuntdubl): Todd Malicoat never blogs, but when he does, he writes great posts like this suggesting that if your social media marketing campaign is failing, you may have had the wrong strategies in place. Good thing he proposes how to fix them also!
• Two Approaches: Shotgun vs. Laser (Web Strategist): There are two (of many) approaches you can take in your social media strategy. Which approach best suits you?
• How to Make Social Media Work for Non-Consumer Brands (Mashable): This is a good B2B social media article which is chock full of examples.
• Ways to Be Human at a Distance (Chris Brogan): Chris Brogan always talks about how businesses can be human again. So what are they to do? He breaks this article into some of the basics of presence, how to converse, how to add multimedia to those conversations, and the topics of conversation.
• How to Manage Successful Social Media Promotions (Mashable): How can you get feedback from social channels to offer exclusive deals to your followers on social media communities? Read this Mashable guide.
• How to Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet in Any Topic (ReadWriteWeb): Marshall Kirkpatrick writes an amazing guide on how you can find thought leaders in any industry.
• The 12 Step Social Media Program for Traditional Marketers (HubSpot): Here are a few things agencies looking to replace different pieces of their business with social media can do.
• 10 Creative Contests Powered by Social Media (Mashable): You can use social media to do many things: build community, make business decisions, and more. Let a contest help make these ideas a reality.

Social Media: Small Business

• Why Small is the New Big in Social Media Marketing (Jonathan Fields): Jonathan Fields explains why small businesses have a real advantage over large ones when it comes to biting the social media bullet. This is a great read.
• 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses (Mashable): Here are five techniques proposed by Samir Balwani that go beyond the mere social media presence, including contests.
• How to Promote a Small Business Website (Small Business Trends): This article isn’t totally social media focused, but it’s part of it.  If you want to market a small business website, social is just part of your overall marketing mix.

Hiring for Social Media

• How to Evaluate Social Media Street Cred (Logic+Emotion): Do you know if that person is able to handle a social media marketing initiative? How omnipresent is he? How well-versed is she? David Armano suggests to study out the candidate first; they shouldn’t just be focused on Twitter, for example.
• 25 Signs You’ve Got a Strong Social Media Consultant or Agency (The Buzz Bin): Beth Harte and Geoff Livingston explain that social media consultants need to know a lot more than about the basic tools out there.
• Why You Shouldn’t Trust Social Media to SEO Consultants (Social Media Explorer): The fact that a few in the SEO community have a narrow approach with regard to social media engagement troubles me.
• 10 Questions to Evaluate a Social Media “Expert” (Conversation Marketing): Well, how did you fare in this quiz?
• I’d Like to See a Social Media Consultant or Agency That… (Direct Marketing Observations): I really liked Marc Meyer’s post here. It was actually how he and I built up a relationship.
• 25 Tips to Choosing a Social Media Consultant (Kyle Lacy): How do you find a social media consultant? They might want to pass this test with flying colors.
• Hiring for Social Media: What I’d Look For (Altitude Branding): Amber Naslund has a great series on good and bad approaches for social media job description and tops it off with what she’d look for if she were to hire for the position.

Social Media: Measurement and ROI

• Measurement Strategies for 5 Social Media Goals (PR Communications): John Cass talks about the various goals you might get through social media and the various ways to measure these goals.
• Are We Too Worried with Finding the ROI of Social Media? (The Viral Garden): What are big brand saying about the ROI of social media? Check Mack Collier’s post to find out.
• 100 Ways to Measure Social Media (Inside the Marketers Studio/David Berkowitz): Who said you can’t measure social media?
• Social Media Metrics: What We Need to Track Sales (Samir Balwani): Samir Balwani writes a great post on some of the ways you get ROI from social media.
• Measuring Social Media ROI: Does Size Matter? (Mark Hayward): Mark Hayward shows the ROI of social media. With a plan, you can measure effectiveness of SM.
• Social Media: Who Can Show Us the Real Value? (Econsultancy):  I like the measurements this article provides. The Online Consumer Engagement Value report idea is a good one.

Social Media: General

• Web Promoters: What Qualities Make Up the Effective Ones? (The Future Buzz): Adam Singer writes an excellent piece on the qualities that make up the most popular “power users” of the social web — that is, those individuals whose content people want to consume always.
• 11 Ways to Lose Friends and Followers Online (Social Media Rockstar): This reminds me of my social media etiquette post; there are just so many things you can do that will not win you any friends on social networks. Brett Borders explores the behavioral triggers that don’t win you any new friends at all.
• The A-Z of Social Media for Brands (Econsultancy): They say it’s “social media for brands.” I say it’s “social media for everyone.”
• Is Social Media Overrated? (Samir Balwani): This post serves as a reminder that social media is just one part of the marketing mix, and you still need to strategize and allocate resources intelligently. What is social media about? At the end of the day, it’s about real connections to consumers. (No, it’s not about the tools!)
• 10 Ways to Be a Great Social Media User (Search Engine Journal): Vince Blackham writes a great post on Search Engine Journal about how to be a great social media user, with tips such as contributing, diversifying your efforts, being real, being meaningful, and more.
• Experts Talk About Social Media Training (Samir Balwani): Samir has a great interview on the background on social media marketing with 5 experts. (Note: I was interviewed. Normally I don’t self-promote in this roundup, but the quotes are good, and Jason Falls, who was featured, is one of my role models.)
• Social Media Tips for Optimizing Time Spent by Marketers (Online Marketing Blog): Social media takes time, but yes, you can optimize it with tips from Adam Singer.
• Answers to Social Media Questions You Should Know (Online Marketing Blog): Here are some great questions and answers from Lee Odden on the typical questions you face in social media marketing.
• The Social Media Conversion Scale (Logic+Emotion): David Armano provides a graphical chart showing the various stages of social media acceptance. Where are you on the list?
• The Hardest Things to Teach Your Clients About Social Media Marketing (10e20): A collaborative list of what things you should or shouldn’t expect of social media marketing.
• The Seven Deadly Sins of Social Media (Search Engine Journal): I love how Jennifer Horowitz equates social media with the 7 sins. She has some great comparisons.
• 23 Social Media Marketing Tips from Dell, Comcast, HP, Wells Fargo, Best Buy, General Mills, Ford, UPS, Home Depot, Cirque du Soleil (Online Marketing Blog): Lee Odden takes advice from the best minds in social media who have worked in the corporate world. This is a fantastic interview!
• The Real Lesson in the Yelp User Review Lawsuit (Nine by Blue): The bottom line is that people need to realize that they can’t control the message. The best solution is to proactively address the situation and make it work for you.
• 5 People Who Broke the Rules of Social Media and Succeeded (Mashable): Real success stories and the experiences learned is the subject of this article.
• Which Social Media Channels Should You Be Using? (The Jordan Rules): This is a great chart and article on the best social media channels for both B2B and B2C companies.
• Share This or Else! What Makes People Share Content? (Samir Balwani): What prompts people to share content — and how does one capitalize on this? Samir discusses human psychology and explains how this correlates to content that is shareable.

Twitter

• Twitter, the Most Important Website Since Google (97th Floor): Yes, Twitter is that important. Chris Bennett features some great parallels in his article.
• Twitter, Customer Service, and Good Brand Management (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni writes a great primer to why Twitter is important for customer service, but then goes a step further and tells you what tools you can use to monitor your brand (and some that cost money and let you respond).
• A Twitter Basics Primer (The Buzz Bin): When you use Twitter for marketing or whatnot, you should consider why you intend to use it and what you plan on getting out of it. This is a basic article but goes into great depth.
• Who Should Tweet? (Samir Balwani): Samir talks about the pros and cons of Tweeting by company representatives, from the CEO to a brand. He suggests a “character” to be the face of the brand on Twitter, sort of like a mascot.
• 8 Twitter Networking Tips: From Online to In-the-Flesh (Twitip): Whether it’s getting instant responses or meeting people in real life via tweetup, some Twitter tips are not to be forgotten.
• The Ultimate Guide to Everything Twitter (Webdesigner Depot): This is a crazy in-depth guide on Twitter, but it’s already outdated since there have been a lot more news and apps that have come out since. Still, though, you can tell that there has been in immense amount of work put into it, and it definitely deserves recognition.
• You’re On Twitter, Now What? (Conversation Agent): How do you want to use Twitter? There are many goals you can achieve with the site.
• 4 Real Offline Uses of Twitter (Dream Systems Media): Twitter marketing is happening online, of course, but it’s happening offline too. Just a few weeks ago, I saw a Twitter decal on a car. It was rather cool. Here are four other ways people are promoting their Twitter accounts.
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Online Business (here.org.uk): This is a nice beginner business guide of the various things you can do in order to be seen as a credible and useful Twitter user.
• 101 Tweets on How to Use Twitter (SEO 2.0): Tad offers 101 ways to use Twitter in retweetable format. Tips include being active and tweeting daily, limiting using Twitter for broadcasting, focusing on company-wide social media policies, and more.
• Connecting with Customers on Twitter: 9 Tips for Success (10e20): Jake writes a great piece on what you should be doing on Twitter in order to be successful.
• Top 10 Reasons Your Company Should Not Tweet (BL Ochman’s Blog): Not everyone will be able to use Twitter. Here are 10 reasons why you as a company entity should avoid it.
• How to Integrate Social Media into Product Marketing (Social Computing Magazine): This is a nice detailed guide on how you can market products via social media. (P.S. Sending products to bloggers helps too!)
• The Tao of Tweeting (Mashable): Good art via Twitter is not that hard to achieve. Soren Gordhamer shows you how.
• Breakdown: 4 Ways Brands are Earning — and Buying — Followers on Twitter (Web Strategist): Jeremiah Owyang explores the Twitter space to see how followers are being earned (or not) on Twitter.
• The 10 Twitter Commandments (Econsultancy): Patricio Robles says that doing these sins is like shooting yourself in the foot.
• How to Use Twitter to Find Local Blog Content (Hyperlocalblogger): Twitter can bring you local traffic, so use it wisely to build friends and a following in your neighborhood.
• 137 Small Business Twitter Tips (Small Business Trends): One hundred and thirty seven people were asked to offer their best Twitter tips, and this has been aggregated and put in a document (PDF, but not linked to this page) for all to see.
• From Corporate to Personal: The Four Types of Social Media Profiles (Web Strategist): What kinds of brand profiles do you find on Twitter?
• 62 Ways to Use Twitter for Business (WebWorkerDaily): Be it credibility, growing your network, or marketing (and then some), this article is a good way to inspire yourself to grow your business Twitter presence.
• 8 Lessons Learned as a Brand on Twitter (tins/Rick Klau): Rick Klau works for Google. He talks about what he has learned by maintaining a brand presence on Twitter: specifically, Google’s Blogger account.
• Make Tweet Love: Top Tips for Building Twitter Relationships (Brian Solis): This is an excellent compendium of tips to get the most out of Twitter, both by Brian Solis and then his own Twitter friends.

Facebook

• How to Create Rich HTML Tabs on Your Facebook Page (10e20): I know Jesse just contributed an awesome article on this blog but Victor’s guide here is also pretty good.
• Why You Need to Create a Facebook Fan Page (Quick Sprout): Neil Patel decided to build a Facebook fan page that was interactive, using it as a case study for why it would benefit you as a business to maintain one and what would be necessary to make it engaging.
• 10 Key SEO Strategies Every Facebook Owner Should Know (Inside Facebook): We all know Facebook tips and tricks, but did we know we can marry the schools of thought of Facebook optimization and SEO? Let’s dive into Justin Smith’s tips.
• How to Build Facebook Community (Socialbrite): If you’re looking to meet some goals with Facebook engagement, you have to actually be able to engage your audience and participate. This article presents fourteen tips for achieving this goal, most of which are common sense but which may inspire you to get more active.
• How to Win Facebook Friends and Influence People (All Facebook): Nick O’Neill’s post on how to become a Facebook power user (read: genuine) is great.
• The Beginner’s Guide to Advertising on Facebook (Jonathan Volk): If you’re looking to advertise on Facebook, be it for your product for via affiliate marketing (in Jonathan’s case), take tips from this guy. He makes 6 digits a MONTH.
• How to Violate Facebook Etiquette and Piss Off Your Friends (All Facebook): Sure, there’s no right or wrong way to use social networks, but there are still socially acceptable limits.
• Are Your Facebook Fans Truly Engaged? (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni shares the findings of a Frozen Frogs study with regards to engaging Facebook followers.  It’s good to know that there are ways to bring Facebook community closer together.

LinkedIn

• 10 Ways to Use LinkedIn to Find a Job (How to Change the World): Thought you couldn’t get a job on LinkedIn? Think again!
• 10 Tips to Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile (SEOptimise): This is a beginner level LinkedIn howto, but it’s amazing to see how many people actually do not follow the basic rules of engagement for LinkedIn!
• Top 10 Reasons Why Your LinkedIn Question is Getting Mostly Pitches (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni writes a great piece about why your LinkedIn community involvement may not be so great for you when you start getting an abundance of pitches. What can you do differently?
• 7 Ways to Get More Out of LinkedIn (Mashable): Taking advantage of the professional network isn’t hard. Here are 7 ways to get the most out of it.
• How to Ensure Your LinkedIn Profile is Effective (Web Worker Daily): Meryl Evans has a good writeup on how to optimize the features of LinkedIn to make a pretty spiffy looking profile.

Leveraging Other Social Media Sites

• How to Get Media Attention and Traffic Out of BusinessExchange (Small Business Trends): Not many people know about BusinessWeek’s Business Exchange, but Anita does, and she explains how you can get visibility out of it.
• 10 Tips to Get the Most Out of Posterous (Make Tech Easier): Posterous is the new lifestreaming app. Shevonne tells you how to actually use it and take advantage of its features.
• 10 Useful Tips to Using FriendFeed (Make Tech Easier): FriendFeed is still going strong, and its community is pretty powerful. Shevonne Polastre tells you how to make the most of it. Big emphasis on point #9. That’s the way to maximize the potential of FriendFeed.
• How I Use FriendFeed (Webomatica): If you wanted to know a little more about the potential of FriendFeed, check out Jason Kaneshiro’s post.
• FriendFeed Groups – The Fast Track to Content and Community (Knowthenetwork.com): How can you use FriendFeed groups to your advantage? Easy.
• Tools to Analyze Delicious Tags, Bookmarks, and URLs (Search Engine Journal): I normally do not put toolbox posts in my yearly roundup because I look for posts with actionable ideas to be put to use. However, how many of you actually knew that Delicious has tools to help you get the most out of it?
• 3 Easy Tips for Improving the Potency of Your StumbleUpon Account (Search Engine Journal): This post by Ryan Caldwell explains how you can improve your StumbleUpon account, but I’d argue that the information could be applied to other social bookmarking sites or social networks as well.
• Getting Links AND Content from Flickr (Search Engine Land): Using Flickr to build content isn’t so hard once you get inspiration from this article which features a case study and suggested scenarios that you can use Flickr with to help.
• 4 Tools to Track Flickr (Search Engine Journal): If you are tasked with monitoring Flickr for the purposes of listening to the conversation or finding out statistics on the photos you’ve uploaded, you should check out these tools to make your job a whole lot easier.
• 6 Tips for Getting the Most out of Foursquare (Mashable): Foursquare is new for many, so learn it and soak it in while it’s still hot.

Blogging

• 13 Tips for Marketing Your Business with Your Blog (Problogger): Most businesses have one goal with their blog: marketing. Darren Rowse gives you 13 ways to do just that.
• 25 Things I Wish I’d Known When I Started Blogging (Web Distortion): Paul Anthony (@webireland) writes an incredible high-level blogging guide, which, if followed, will definitely bring you ahead of the competition. Guaranteed.
• Do You Make These 10 Mistakes When You Blog? (Michael Hyatt): This is a good article on the common pitfalls facing bloggers, from not posting enough to posting too much and everything in between.
• Blog Post Ideas that Always Generate Buzz (The Future Buzz): In case you needed to be inspired even more to write good blog posts, Adam Singer covers even more angles for the aspiring blogger.
• A Crash Course in Comments (Chris Brogan): So many people don’t value the connections that can be had if you write meaningful comments on blogs.
• How to Find the Best Free Images/Photos/Graphics for Your Blog Posts (Smackdown!): Some really great public domain image search tools are reviewed in this article. Plus, of course, there’s Creative Commons licensed images too. And I’ll add another favorite: everystockphoto.com.
• 10 Things to Do Before Launching Your Blog (Small Business Trends): Maybe everyone reading this already has blogs.  Maybe you don’t.  If you’re about to start, read this guide.  If you’re starting a new one later on, read this guide.
• How to Write a Review (Blogging Tips): This is a different kind of blogging post, one that pertains to writing reviews of products. If you want to write a complete review of something, be sure to follow the guidelines highlighted in this post.
• 100 Ways to Find Ideas for Your Blog Posts (LifeSnips): If you’ve lost blogging inspiration, Steve Aitchison will bring you out of the blogging slumps. You can’t really run out of blogging ideas after reading this article unless the motivation isn’t within you.
• How to Make (and Keep) Your Blog Content in Demand (The Future Buzz): Adam Singer explains how you can keep your blog in demand, making it referenced and looked at regularly.
• 101 Ways to Promote a New Blog (Daily Blog Tips): Some of these ideas are rather unconventional, but I like ‘em.
• 19 Reasons Why You Should Blog and Not Just Tweet (The Future Buzz): Everyone Tweets nowadays, but there are reasons why you should blog instead. Some of Adam Singer’s points include demonstrating passion, getting full analytics, limits of 140 characters, and being in full control of the content and the website.
• How to Make Blogging Work for Your Business (Wordtracker): This is a great guide by Chris Garrett into what blogs can do for you and how you can build your blog to be successful for your business.
• Suggested Guide for Writing Effective Blog Posts (PMA Media Group): Blogging isn’t always just about opening a “new post” link and typing your thoughts. For some, it’s just not that simple. You might want to start with ways to inspire yourself and include some SEO keyword ranking tips as well.
• 10 Steps to Creating an Authority Blog (David Walker): Bloggers, take note: the presentation and the content of your blog is everything. There’s more than that, though, and David Walker walks you though it.
• 5 Ways to Increase Your Blog’s Search Traffic (Search Engine People): In Glen Allsopp’s guest post for Search Engine People, he says that you can increase your blog’s search engine traffic by applying some tactics to old (already published) blog posts.
• 5 Ways to Turn Blog Comments into Conversations (SEO Scoop): Blog comments should be ongoing conversations, but how do you do that? Barry Welford explores ways to make blog comments more engaging.
• The Complete Guide to Video Blogging (Mashable): Ever wanted to be a video blogger? This in-depth Mashable article by Leah Betancourt talks about the roots of video blogging and how to get started.
• How to Use Curation to Make Your Blog Better (Influential Marketing): I love how Rohit Bhargava compares PostSecret to success in blogging. He offers great tips here.
• Starting a Blog? These 50 Lessons Will Help You Succeed (The Future Buzz): Using data gathered from the Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2009, Adam Singer gives solid actionable tips on how you can start a blog and why it’s important that you do.
• 22 Reasons for You to Blog (Gloson): The youngest person who will ever make it to my top posts is totally Gloson. He’s 11 and gives you 22 reasons why you should blog.
• 8 Tips for Building Community on Your Blog (Problogger): If you really have a strong blog, you have potential to also grow a strong community. But how? Darren Rowse provides the insights.
• How to Create a High Quality Blog (Dan Blank): Pretty pictures and solid advice make this blog post a winner for anyone — companies and people — looking to craft a high quality blog.
• A Short List of Content Elements for Your Consideration (Broadcasting Brain): Before you publish your blog, ask yourself the following questions. Due diligence, my friends.
• How to Make Your Corporate Blog More Social (Social Media Explorer): Dan Zarrella shares small ideas but smart ones that can make your corporate blog a lot more approachable.

Reputation Management

• Top 10 Ways to Save Your Online Reputation in 2009 (Small Business Trends): Business need to step up a notch and be a lot more personable to avoid a reputation management fiasco. Most companies need to start by simply acknowledging each and every incoming request from a customer as alluded to in #2.
• Using Social Media For Reputation Management (DirJournal): Some of the tips here aren’t discussed in other articles, such as focusing on video and optimizing for local search.
• How to Build a Reputation Monitoring Dashboard (aimClear): This is an incredibly huge post by Marty Weintraub on how to set up a reputation management monitoring dashboard, from doing the keyword research to finding additional keywords to monitor to actually building it. It has lots of screenshots and good actionable information that you can get started with today.
• A Common Search Reputation Management Timeline (Search Cowboys): To summarize this post, if you don’t act to prevent reputation management issues, you’re doomed in the search world.
• Be Proactive With Your Reputation Management (Vertical Measures): My book talks about how maintaining social media profiles can help you with your reputation management issues. This post echoes that sentiment and provides specific social networks that you should establish your presence on.
• How Companies Should Respond to Negative Reviews (Outspoken Media): You shouldn’t always let criticism sit.  Sometimes you can respond.  What would you respond to, though?  How should you do it?
• The Dos and Don’ts of Online Reputation Management (Search Engine Journal): This article is a simple easy list to follow for reputation management issues. Yes, you can push down negative search engine results, but you need a plan. You can get some direction on that plan by reading this article.
• 5 Ways Negative Reviews are Good for Business (Small Business SEM): Matt McGee explains why negative reviews aren’t too bad after all. Just make sure you don’t get mentioned on Consumerist or Boing Boing. (Of course, if you get there, it’s probably because your customers exhausted all avenues, which you should’ve been abreast of earlier!)
• Online Reputation Management in the Future (WebProNews): Chris Crum interviews several experts about the possible diminishing impact of reputation management services — that is, when everyone has a reputation management issue, is it going to be less of a concern?
• The Online Reputation Management Guide (Outspoken Media): Outspoken Media has produced an incredible online reputation guide. Rhea Drysdale talks about the nuances of assessing, building, tracking, and monitoring your reputation online.

Content Development/Marketing

• Writing Content for the Buyer’s Decision Journey (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni talks about the buying funnel and gives good examples of companies that do it well.
• 10 Secrets for Creating Viral Content (The Buzz Bin): It’s all about others — NOT yourself.
• The Doctor McCoy Guide to Healing Sick Content (Copyblogger): What do Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy of Star Trek and good writers have in common? Mark Dykeman offers a few parallels that just might get you thinking of your article-writing (or blogging) strategy.
• Beyond Headlines: How to Get Your Audience to Read Every Word (Copyblogger): Dave Navarro’s article on Copyblogger explains how to entice an audience and force them to read every word. The idea is to communicate similar tastes, triggering a sense of need, and promising valuable information.
• 30 Simple Ways of Improving Bounce Rate and Conversion Rate (SEOptimise): This article has some great ways to convert visitors into members, buyers, or regular users of your site. Are you listening?
• 12 Types of Content Strategies SEOs Should Know and Use (Search Engine People): If you want to build traffic and links to your site, you might want to get some ideas from Jeff Quipp. Hint: this type of post is in the article, but that’s not really why I do it. At the end of the day, it’s great to provide a valuable resource for me and for you!
• 9 Strategies for Finding Incredible Content (Search Engine Journal): This post on Search Engine Journal actually proposes some pretty unknown sites that you can leverage for article content inspiration.
• Practical Guide to Finding Link Bait Inspiration (SEO Smarty): Ann Smarty presents a pretty good guide for content inspiration, but not just any type of content: her guide gives you ideas on finding great link bait topics.
• The Psychology of a Linkbait (Search Engine Journal): Loren Baker paraphrases this article by saying, “You can increase your chances of linking success by remembering one simple rule : the best links come from real human beings. Here are ways to appeal to those real human emotions in linkbaiting.”
• Why Most Get Content Marketing Wrong (The Future Buzz): It’s a matter of formatting your content properly. If you miss the ball, you will fail.
• Top 10 Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails (Conversation Agent): Might as well try to get it right, right? Let Valeria help.
• The 10 Commandments of Content Marketing (Social Media Explorer): I like Kat French. She explains why your content marketing strategy might just not work in a nice list format with good descriptions.
• 49 Creative Ways You Can Profit from Content Marketing (Copyblogger): To be ahead of the game, you should be creative about it. Here are 49 things you can think about right now.

Web Development

• The “Just Create Compelling and Useful Content” Lie (Sebastian’s Pamphlets): Sebastian highlights the elements of a successful website. Hint: it’s not just great content alone.
• Things to Ask Before You Redo Your Website (Seth Godin): Seth asks thought-provoking questions that are to be considered in your next website redesign.

Video

• Online Video for Business: The Three Types of Business Video (ReelSEO): We’ve heard about viral videos, but that’s only one type of business video. There are two other types of videos, according to Daniel Sevitt. He goes into each type by explaining what they are and providing metrics for success.
• How to Succeed on YouTube (Search Engine Marketing Group): If you’ve been looking for some good ideas for how to achieve viral success on YouTube, read what Sheena Melwani says from experience.
• 5 Important Web Video Lessons for Small Business Owners (Mashable/OPEN Forum): How are you going to make your video stick? Josh Catone highlights 5 videos and explains the lessons learned.
• How Video Promotion Launched a Rap Career: A Complete Guide (Shoemoney): This article might be specific to a rapper’s evolving career, but there are general video promotion ideas in here as well.
• 34 Ways to Use YouTube for Business (WebWorkerDaily): These tips are broken down into expertise, advertising, and customer service.

SEO: Strategy

• The SEM Toolbox: 79 Tools and Tips Every Search Marketer Should Have (SEO Contrarian): Ari Ozick provides a list of the best tools ever needed to do your job as a search engine marketer. Categories include backup tools, backlink discovery tools, link management tools, competitive research tools, keyword tools, domain tools, and a whole lot more.
• SEO Hierarchy of Needs (Bruce Clay Blog): What step are you on when it comes to your SEO needs? What must you do next? This article by Virginia Nussey features a graphic that mimics Maslow’s hierarchy with an SEO spin.
• Search Engine Ranking Factors (SEOmoz): Every year, SEOmoz comes out with a list of search engine ranking factors, which is incredibly valuable if you do anything remotely related to SEO or search engine marketing. Of course, it’s not perfect since the algorithm is kept under wraps, but this information has been guesstimated by trial and error.
• Big List of Search Engine Ranking Factors (Huomah): David Harry revisits the discussion of the factors that he believes affects search engine rankings. And since he just came out with the recent training course SEO Dojo, which has been an incredible success, it’s a good idea to read this and listen.
• What Aspects of SEO Should You Be Spending Most of Your Time On? (SEO Book): Peter Da Vanzo gives a good beginner’s guide for how to get into SEO for your new website.
• Google is the Other Woman: The Relationship Algorithm (Foot in Mouth): This article uses an interesting parallel to judge how Google judges your site for algorithmic preference, but I actually would contend that all search engines typically follow the same rules of thumb. I love the analogies!
• Future-Proof Your SEO (Huomah): Here’s an article which will actually likely be outdated in a few years, but I thought it was still good enough for the purposes of understanding the search landscape today with regards to what works and what doesn’t in search engine optimization.
• The 100+ Ranking Variables Google Uses, and Why You Shouldn’t Care (SEO Book): In January, Aaron Wall predicted that search marketing success will come from engaging people. This is absolutely starting to take hold, especially as people actually talk about their favorite websites and search engines respond in kind. Twitter integration in search results, anyone?
• Big Project, Small Budget: Where to Begin Your SEO Campaign (Search Engine Guide): If you are trying to SEO your site, you may want to start thinking about the areas you should put more emphasis on–perhaps because your budget constraints may limit you to only one of these areas.
• 12 Easy Mistakes that Plague Newcomers to the SEO Field (SEOmoz): Even though this is a basic article on SEO, sometimes even seasoned professionals lose sight of this stuff. You can count on the “reciprocal linking” (read: link exchanges) to be a big mishap in “established SEO firms” from the amount of emails I get with that request daily across all my blogs. UGH
• SEO for Large eCommerce Sites (AudetteMedia): Adam Audette is the SEO for Zappos. That means he knows a fair bit about optimizing billion-dollar business websites. He explores the techniques he uses for his big client in this article.
• Creating a Sweet High Value Keyword List in 5 Minutes (SEO Book): Aaron Wall shows you how to create a high-value keyword research list in 5 minutes, then features a video on how to actually see what you just did.
• 5 Free SEO Tools You’re Probably Not Using Yet (Search Engine Marketing Group): Here’s my question. Have you even heard of these yet?
• How to Optimize for Conversion in Organic Search Results (Search Engine Land): SEO should be ROI-centric. If that’s not on your agenda, read this article and start thinking along the lines of driving real conversions.
• 7 Rules for Writing URLs (Small Business SEM): If you do anything related to search engine marketing, understanding the URL structure and how to actually optimize it is important. Matt McGee offers tips on how to do this.
• How Using Google AdWords Can Be the Best SEO Tool in Your Arsenal (RedFly Marketing): Dave Davis presents some pretty invaluable information on the potential for Google AdWords to be an incredible asset for search engine optimization. Yes, you read that right.
• How to Up Your SEO Income by a Factor of 10 (SEO Book): Ari Ozick’s guest post for SEO Book is a darn good one – you won’t know until you test. It’s really that simple.
• SEO Best Practices: New Policies Based on Updated Correlation Data (SEOmoz): It’s time to start reevaluating your SEO tactics. SEOmoz has looked at what works and reported on their findings.
• 5 SEO Essentials: Charting Effective Search Engine Optimization (Online Marketing Blog): Dana Larson’s approach toward effective SEO is great. Most people forget about that in such a social media centric world.
• 6 Key Tactics for Organic Success (Search Engine Guide): Jen Laycock provides six great tactics for organic success: keywords, content, code, optimization, links, and patience. Yes, patience is a big one!

SEO: Information

• Small Business SEO: Costs, Expectations, Realities (Small Business SEM): This isn’t a “SEO how to” article. We always see enough of those. What this is is a good article by Matt McGee on what you should expect when you actually buy SEO consulting.
• 5 Tips for Avoiding Deceptive SEO Companies (Small Business Trends): Since we’re talking about SEO, we might as well tell you what to look for so that you do NOT do business with some of these companies. Look for reputable companies if you ever need to focus on search engine optimization. Your rankings depend on it.
• Setting Up an SEO Shop Overnight! (High Rankings): Jill Whalen rants about the “SEO shops” that give SEO the snake oil bad name. There actually are good SEOs out there.
• 8 Short Steps to Forecast and Estimate SEO ROI (SEO ROI): Want ROI for your SEO efforts? Gab Goldenberg offers 8 steps on how exactly that can be achieved.
• You Don’t Need SEO to Rank in Google (Sugarrae): Rae explains that SEO by itself simply isn’t the key to high rankings. Good content and marketing is really the key; SEO is just a secondary requirement.

Link Building

• Get Your Link Building Requests Answered (Dream Systems Media): Matt Siltala writes an incredibly valuable article that answers how to get people to link to you once they’ve already established rapport with your competitors. He also brings in four experts who weigh in on the question.
• Why Link Building May Not Work (Best SEO Blog): Sometimes your link building practices won’t work. Michael Martinez explains why beginning about 1/3 of the way down in this article.
• How to Get Backlinks (Internet Marketing Techniques and Theories): Leo calls this post “very long.” I think I agree with him.
• Secrets of How to Escape the Link Building Trap Now (SEO Theory): If you don’t want to build links, you might pursue these other opportunities to build links that don’t violate any guidelines. There’s also a service review in here for a link building program run by a pretty well known guy in the SEO space.
• Buy Text Link Ads with these 101 Sneaky Tips (Search Engine Journal): Gab Goldenberg tries to stay under the radar when buying text links with 101 ideas that hopefully won’t get you caught.
• Indispensable Link Building Applications (Wiep.net): Wiep Knol has a toolbox filled to the brim of great link building applications. If you do any link building at all, make sure to familiarize yourself with these applications.
• Link Building Techniques, Interactive Agency Approach (Zeta Interactive): I get about 4-5 link building requests across multiple web properties a day. When reading this article, I realize that for 99.9% of these requests, none of these techniques (personalized requests, transparency, knowing the target website, etc.) are employed at all. Is that really so difficult? I guess it is when you outsource link building to interns.
• A Big Bunch of Link Building Ideas (Search Engine Land): Debra Mastaler is a link building genius and when she talks, I always listen. In this article, she explores the consequences of actually linking out to other websites and what you can do to build other types of links.
• Link Building from A to Z (SEOmoz): Wiep Knol is one of the foremost link building experts and has covered an entire alphabet of ways to get new links.
• 10 Goals for Link Building Campaigns: Moving Beyond “Get More Links” (Search Engine Land): Garrett French writes a great in-depth guide on how you can build links, suggesting countless tactics and link prospect sources.
• Link Building Evaluation Journal (Search Engine Journal): Building links to a website? How could you enhance your link portfolio? Dave Snyder suggests different ideas for different metrics of the link, be them the age of a domain, the anchor text, or the relevant authority of the link page.
• 10 Link Building and Tracking Tools for SEO (Online Marketing Blog): Got links? Start testing them. This Top Rank Marketing blog post explores ten possible tools from which to do this.
• 11 Effective, Efficient Ways to Use Limited Time to Build Links (Search Engine Land): If you’re tasked with building links but yet do not know how to manage your time, you might want to read this and follow Debra Mastaler’s suggestions.
• Link Mixology: The 12 Kinds of Links Your Site Needs (Michelle MacPhearson): Michelle MacPhearson writes a good point on what kinds of links you should be getting if you intend to market your website.
• 21 Link Builders Share Advanced Link Building Queries (Search Engine Land): Not all link building tips and tricks have to be Link Building 101. Here are 21 great advanced tactics that can help you get a little more out of link building.

PPC

• PPC Advertising Pitfalls: Don’t Just Do What Simon Says (Search Cowboys): Lisa Myers talks about the common pitfalls when engaging in a Google AdWords PPC campaign and explains that most people fall into these because Google AdWords is so easy to set up that many business owners waste money every day.
• The Golden Rules of Keyword Research (SEOptimise): Choosing keywords for PPC should not be too difficult, as long as your keywords are relevant, specific, local, smart, sneaky, and flexible. Explanations within.
• Top 5 Mistakes Made by PPC Newcomers (Latitude Group): Maybe you’ve decided to go into PPC marketing. If you do, don’t make these mistakes in Google AdWords.
• When Pay Per Click is NOT Right for You (Search Engine Journal): PPC? What’s that all about? Brian Carter explains why PPC is an asset and why it might be detrimental for you. If you have no idea what this is and might consider trying it, read this article first.
• How to Write PPC Ad Copy (Search Engine People): If you’ve ever done Google AdWords or any other PPC, you know that the best copy is important to drive clickthroughs. Just HOW to optimize those messages is the subject of this article.
• 6 Habits of Highly Effective PPC Managers (NVI Solutions): If you do any Pay Per Click, you should possess these six traits at the minimum, which include the desire to test and tweak, leveraging your web analytics, and staying informed of policy updates.
• Writing Your Best PPC Ads (Search Cowboys): If you’ve ever done Pay Per Click marketing, you might want to follow some of the tips Kate Morris offers on this post.
• SEM Training Strategy: Overcoming Common Mistakes (SEO Book): Aaron Wall explains how to maximize your PPC and SEO campaigns.
• How to Prevent Competitors from Seeing Your AdWords Ads (Jennifer Slegg): If you are really the competitive type and don’t want your competitors to see your Google AdWords ads, take Jen’s advice and lock ‘em out!
• 9 Tips to Write Effective Google AdWords Copy (Search Engine Journal): Saad Kamal knows his Google AdWords. Do you?
• 7 Incredibly Valuable but Underused Free Tools for PPC Marketers (Search Engine Land): Brad Geddes talks about some of the most useful tools to help boost your Pay Per Click campaigns.

Affiliate Marketing

• Cut the Fat: Some Quick Tips to Instantly Gain Profit (Jonathan Volk): Jonathan Volk’s gives affiliate marketing tips based on his own trial and error.
• Are You Ready for an Affiliate Program? (NVI Solutions): I usually talk about affiliate marketing on the hows of setting it up. But what if you’re a merchant who is considering it? Then read this and see if you’re ready.
• The Most Powerful Way to Presell Any Product or Service (Dosh Dosh): Dosh Dosh discusses the way to lure potential buyers into buying your product like all affiliate marketers should really be doing.
• PPC Affiliate Marketing 101 (Jonathan Volk): In case you were new to the affiliate game, here’s what you can do to get started with affiliate marketing using Pay Per Click.
• Interview with Rae Hoffman AKA Sugarrae (SEO Book): Rae Hoffman talks to Aaron Wall about her success as an affiliate marketer. This interview is pretty damn good.

Analytics

• 6 Tools Every Google Analytics User Should Have (Unofficial Google Analytics Blog): I’ve never heard of any of these Google Analytics tools before!
• Google Analytics Mega Post: 23 Google Analytics Tips and Tweaks (Search Engine People): Google Analytics out of the box is a powerful package. You can tweak output even further, though. To get started, read this article.
• The Complete Google Analytics Power User Guide (VKI Studios): This is the most in-depth Google Analytics user guide that I’ve ever seen.
• Using Analytics to Measure SEO Success (Search Engine Land): Jill Whalen explains that rankings aren’t good success metrics. Instead, focus on your analytics. Here’s how.
• Google Analytics for Local Search (seOverflow):  This is how you can use Google Analytics for some great local optimization.  This article is choc full of great detail, and while it’s local-focused, there’s good actionable insight for anyone using Google Analytics in some way.

Usability

• Is Your Website Easy to Buy From? Tips You Can Test to Improve Your Site’s Checkout Process (Conversion Room): Want to make sales on your website? You better hope it’s usable. Here are some areas you can test to find out if your site is good for the average buyer.
• Are You Guilty of Crimes Against Usability? Let the Jury Decide (Search Engine Guide): In this usability blog post, Stoney deGeyter equates your customers with the jury. Business owners should study those juries to find out what judgments they are passing on your site.
• Why Usability and SEO Go Hand in Hand (Search Engine Land): Search engines like usable websites, just like people do. It’s in your best interest to appreciate the value of this.

Landing Pages

• 9 Effective Tips for a Better Landing Page (Search Engine Journal): Saad Kamal offers good tips for great landing pages.
• 30+ Principles to a Better Landing Page Design (Landing Page Optimization): You’ve read about the types of landing pages, but how do you actually design one? You can follow the tactics tried by people who already have found success.
• Landing Page Types (Lyris HQ): This article presents a concise list of landing page types, from PPC landing pages to transactional landing pages.
• 7 Tips to Increasing Landing Page Conversions (Search Engine Journal): Lauren Vaccarello explains how to craft the content on your landing page to actually see conversions. One great tip: avoid marketing speak and use simple English instead.

Local/Mobile Search

• Mobile Search Guide (cellphones.org): Now more and more people are using their cell phones and searching on their favorite search engine. My phone is old as heck but even I do it. But if you’re a website creator, have you optimized for mobile search? If not, perhaps you should, since your visitors might end up going elsewhere.
• Local Search Ranking Factors (David Mihm): Just like there are SEO ranking factors, there are also local search ranking factors.  David Mihm gives you an exhaustive list of them for your perusal.
• A Closer Look at the Local Search Data Providers (getListed.org): Any local business presence will want to make sure its information is accurate online.  Take a look at the providers listed to figure out where your information needs to be updated.
• Blocking and Tackling: 10 Fundamentals of Local SEO (Search Engine Land): David Mihm, our resident local expert, provides a basic list of what you should do as a local business to get ranked in search engines.

Personal Branding

• How to Start or Start Over Building Your Personal Brand (Skelliewag): Skellie talks about why a brand is important and how you can do it.
• How to Build Your Personal Brand on YouTube (Mashable): Dan Schawbel is a personal branding expert and shows you how to build a strong YouTube brand. Really, this is a pretty good general YouTube how-to article, but he ties it into the personal branding element, which works for me.
• SEO Tips for Building Your Personal Brand (Search Engine Land): I don’t really consider these “SEO” tips, as they’re more social media centric. But they’re great for building your brand, that’s for sure.
• 7 Ways to Land Great Consulting Work While in Between Jobs (Personal Branding Blog): How to build your brand when finding a job, according to Monica O’Brien!
• What a Personal Brand is NOT (Tom Peters): It is NOT a perk, among other things. You have the privilege of a personal brand. What are you going to make of it?
• 50 Ways to Make Limoncello When You’ve Been Laid Off (Conversation Agent): Valeria Maltoni highlights an incredibly inspirational video and gives you some great ideas to build your brand when you’ve been laid off — and I’ll add when you’re not. You should always be building your personal brand.

Building a Brand/Brand Evangelism

• Checklist: Develop a Successful Advocacy Program (Web Strategist): Jeremiah covers some of the other aspects of a brand ambassador program, detailing the nuances and the like.
• 19 Presence Management Chores You Could Do Every Day (Chris Brogan): Chris Brogan shows how you can be involved in the conversations around you — tangibly.
• What Do You Love? (Cranial Soup): This article is about marketing coming from the perspective of the consumer. Consumers have a duty to market their favorite products or risk losing them from store shelves. Marketers should do this for their favorite products for free. I would. (Call it brand evangelism if you will.)
• How to Create Advocates for Your Business (Logic+Emotion): Brand evangelism. Customer Advocacy. It’s all the same. Now how do you actually get there?

Public Relations

• The State of PR, Marketing, and Communications: You are the Future (Brian Solis): This is the longest “blog post” in the history of the world but it is one of the most brilliant things I have read in all of 2009.
• PR Gone Bad: How to Anger Bloggers and Hose Your Client (Jonathan Fields): This story by Jonathan was so good that I even wrote a story about it which was published to Brian Solis’s blog as well.
• Shift Your PR from Push to Pull (The Future Buzz): Why should you move to a pull PR strategy? Adam Singer gives you the lowdown.
• 3 Steps for Effectively Using Social Media for PR (Online Marketing Blog): Social is everywhere, and you can use it in your public relations efforts. In fact, you really should.
• 25 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a PR Firm (Idea Grove): These questions test competency, prioritization, cost-efficiency, and compatibility.
• How to Use Social Media in Your PR Pitch (Mashable): Interaction is key, according to Susan Payton.
• The Art of the Pitch (Jonathan Volk): Want to pitch a busy blogger? Follow these steps. This is a short read with good insights.
• How to Woo a Blogger (and get coverage) (Outspoken Media): This is an excellent guidebook into what you should to in order to get a blogger to talk about you.  If the proposed content fits the blogger’s audience and you follow these rules, you very well may see more mentions of your clients’ products/services in blog posts.
• How to Write Effective Press Releases in the Age of Twitter (OPEN Forum): It’s not really just the “age of Twitter” – it’s the “age of social.” That said, where’s your multimedia? Is it in your pitch?
• A Poor Man’s Guide to Finding Influencers (The Buzz Bin): If you’re not going to buy a Cision subscription to find the bloggers and people interested in talking about you, try this guide to get you to locating who to reach out to.

Community Management/Engagement

• 5 Myths of Community Management (Altitude Branding): This is a great post on what a community manager REALLY does. Newsflash: it’s not only about walking the halls of social media sites.
• Community Manager Responsibilities and Goals (Connie Bensen): Connie writes a great post about community management (revised from July 2008).
• Social Media Community Manager Job Description (aimClear): Here’s an “official description” for a social media community manager.
• Community Engagement (The Buzz Bin): Geoff Livingston talks about engagement as discussed in his book, Now is Gone, and how it has evolved in the last 1.5 years.
• How to Kick Start a Community: An Ongoing List (Web Strategist): Jeremiah suggests some great ways to build a real online community in your little neck of the woods.
• 10 Rules for Increasing Community Engagement (Mashable): A big point that Leah Betancourt makes here is the emphasis on user generated content (UGC). Other important points are identifying and nurturing power users and welcoming newbies.

General Online Marketing

• Definitive Guide to Word of Mouth Marketing (Samir Balwani): Samir Balwani writes an awesome guide on word of mouth marketing, broken down and categorized into sections (why it’s important, elements of WOMM, web influence, what elements facilitate sharing, campaign tracking, and more!)
• How to Send a Personal Email (Seth Godin): Seth Godin writes about email etiquette. My favorite? #14 (especially due to all the LinkedIn spammers who have been targeting me as of late).
• 6 Powerful Principles of Persuasion for Influential Internet Marketing (Winning the Web): In a post emphasizing the parallels of the book “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert Cialdini, Gyutae Park applies these principles to Internet Marketing and explains why you need to apply them in any online marketing campaign.
• 6 Buzzworthy Laws All Internet Marketers Should Understand (The Future Buzz): Do you know what the long tail means? Probably. How about Metcalfe’s Law or The Streisand Effect?
• 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make Them Take Action (Dosh Dosh): If you’re marketing to individuals online, you should target your messaging to the three brains of the human body. Don’t understand what I just said? Read the article.
• 6 Fool-Proof Steps to Make More Money With Your Website (Dosh Dosh): Dosh Dosh wrote another great article on how to monetize your most popular web pages. This is great for anyone, from the affiliate marketer to the SEO to the small online shop.
• “Don’t Put Your Eggs in One Basket” is Bad Advice for Internet Marketers (Winning the Web): While I argue that you must not spread yourself too thin, I actually am going to take Gyutae’s advice on this one.
• 3 Reasons Why it Pays to Go Niche (Literally) (Winning the Web): Gyutae Park explains that some markets are saturated. You’ll be more successful if you focus on niche markets instead. (Good luck starting a brand new social media blog tomorrow!)
• 11 Internet Marketing Skills that Should be Second Nature (Conversation Marketing): Are you well versed in internet marketing? Being knowledgeable in social media doesn’t cut it. You should also know these 11 tips as suggested by Ian Lurie.
• Social Impacts Every Customer Touchpoint (Web Strategist): This article touches upon the different elements of online advertising (and then some) and highlights market maturity and brand impact.
• Internet Marketing Isn’t a Buffet: Why You Need Quality Traffic Over Quantity (Winning the Web): Quality is more important than quantity, and Gyutae explains why this is the case.
• 10 Things You Can Do in the Next 60 Days to Market Your Business and Close More Sales (Small Business Trends): This article was talking about how to end 2009, but since you’re probably reading it for the first time now, how about using these to begin 2010?

Everything Else Under the Sun

• Being Socially Aware: Because a Smile and Fast Talk Don’t Work on the Internet (ob81): For a successful marketing effort, the bottom line, according to Howard O’Berry, is that you need to be socially aware of your surroundings and know who to pitch to. He even refers to a case study that impacted him to drive this point home.
• 12 Steps to Upgrade Your Business (Small Business Trends): Here are some great ideas to upgrade your business, from being more approachable to learning a new web technology to NETWORKING! woo!
• Rage Against the Sales Letter (Jonathan Fields): The long sales letter is a tactic that you may not really appreciate, but some marketers swear by it. Read why Jonathan Fields considers long copy a must-have.
• Business Ethics & Mistakes You Should Avoid! (Tony Adam): Tony Adam explores some business ethics moves that you should avoid. Some include reporting your competitors, burning bridges, and more.
• Your Customers’ Hierarchy of Need (Ignite Social Media): Ignite Social Media writes a great post on how customers relate to brands using Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
• How to Identify and Deal with Different Types of Clients (Smashing Magazine): If you’ve ever had a nitpicker or family friend as a client, what are you to do when issues arise? Smashing Magazine has your answer.
• 9 Reasons Your Online Business Will Fail (Shoemoney): Discipline and focus are two of the nine reasons.

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Closing Notes

The year 2009 was incredibly huge for me. I gave birth to my first child, a little boy, who is my pride and joy. I published a social media marketing book. I’ve made great relationships, big and small, and I’ve worked on some fantastic projects that I could have only dreamed of just a few years ago.

In the past decade, I’ve graduated college, married the love of my life, switched careers to find my passion, and now I live through it every day. Every morning, I wake up excited to see what the day will bring. I’m aiming higher for the next 10 years — let’s see if I can top this. I’m truly excited to see what next year will bring.

May you all have a happy, successful, and wonderful 2010.

[ Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2009 is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

Like this post? Get my Internet Marketing newsletter, buy my book, The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web, and subscribe to the Techipedia RSS feed.

My husband Brian, who knows firsthand how much I eat, drink, and sleep social media, pointed me to an interesting critique by ExpertCruiser on a 2007 social media marketing campaign by Royal Caribbean.  That year, the cruise line launched a brand ambassador program.  Using market intelligence, Royal Caribbean identified supporters of the cruise line via social networking sites and took the opportunity to give fifty of the most ardent supporters, called Royal Champions, special privileges, including free paid cruises and invitations to special events with company executives.

In my upcoming book, The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web (Amazon link), which is slated to be released in late Spring, I talk about the importance of brand evangelism as part of an effective community management strategy. Individuals who are passionate and who have never been previously incentivized to promote your product are already talking positively about you on the web. If they’re already raving about your awesome product and promoting your service for free, why not show them that you appreciate all they are doing and offer them additional perks? Why not encourage the spread of goodwill?

This is exactly the process of the Royal Caribbean marketing team, a move that in 2007 was seen as virtually unheard of. Only recently, however, this story has become widely critiqued, with bloggers calling the practice a “vicious … royal mess” that “crossed the line.” In fact, ExpertCruiser made a scathing comment at the end of the article that suggests that this is a filthy manipulative practice:

Like them or not, online cruise message boards are now part of the pool of intelligence gathering and rumor swapping used (and manipulated) by travel agents, cruise line employees, rabid cruise fans, investors, media and the curious to track the performance of a cruise line.

Perhaps this is a “take heed” call to community participants who engage on the social web, but while ExpertCruiser warns its readers that this is a scummy practice, in reality, scouring social sites for mentions of your product, service, and even your competitors is nothing new. The effective practice of social media marketing requires monitoring all channels, from online cruise message boards to social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn. If you are not tapping into the online message boards for your own industry or niche, you’re not doing a thorough job at monitoring the successes or failures of your product.  You are missing out on tremendous opportunity for growth and performance of competitive analysis.  If a forum exists for your industry, you should very well be active: you should participate and follow the discussion closely to know exactly what is being said and what kind of feedback you can take back to your executive and development team to enhance your product and to make it better than your competition.

Touching upon the original concern as expressed by the ExperCruiser bloggers, the sheer existence of brand evangelism and the utilization of related programs do not cross the line.  In Royal Caribbean’s case, they simply  tapped into the minds of individuals who already loved the cruise line and expressed themselves as supporters on social networking forums.  Using the same individuals who were already respected in these communities to speak of how much they enjoyed their cruise experience and subsequently by following up with free rewards is not a deceptive practice.  Loyalty programs such as the Royal Champions encourage people to maintain a positive outlook about the company and may further influence them to talk more positively about the same company in the future.  These individuals didn’t have to be paid to do it before, after all, but the nice unexpected perks are certainly not unappreciated.

Because this critical post of Royal Caribbean disappointed me, I polled my Twitter followers for feedback.  I asked to see if anyone disagreed with this promotional tactic, and if not, what kind of incentives they’d offer to their constituents if they chose to engage in a brand ambassador program.  Responses from participants were unanimously in favor of brand evangelism and encouraged offering small perks such as free customer service and a nice dinner to large rewards such as in the case of Royal Caribbean’s free cruise.

@dudester (Mark Patterson) says:
@tamar Brand evangelism is a good thing, as long as the brand is worth evangelizing. You need to live up to the brand.

@zaifmand (Dror Zaifman) says:
@tamar In my opinion brand evangelism is not a bad thing at all. If anything it makes your brand sound different and stand out.

@AdamBroitman (Adam Broitman) says:
@tamar why would brand evangelism be a bad thing? Bribery=bad; but there is a fine line

@skinner (skinner) says:
@tamar Maybe you’d offer a brand ambassador free customer service, free promotion in return, things like that.

@TimMoore (Tim Moore) says:
@tamar dinner certificate? For top advocates, 3 day cruises?

@amabaie (David Leonhardt) says:
@tamar Any type of evangelism is a bad thing if it’s too pushy; it’s a good thing if it is “helpful”…just like a salesperson.

@vangogh (Steven Bradley) says:
@tamar Ideally nothing more than a good brand experience

@deirdrereid (Deirdre Reid) says:
@tamar Brand evang is a great thing. Incentives depend on brand type – how can u satisfy evang’s wants/needs, stroke their ego, incr recog?

@chiropractic (Planet Chiropractic) says:
@tamar I think it’s a good thing. Offer pre-release access to new products/services. Send free stuff. Say thank you a lot.

@dmasocialmedia (Social Media Smarts) says:
@tamar Sometimes all people want or need is recognition & acknowledgment to be good brand ambassadors

@ronhekier (Ron Hekier) says:
@tamar While others disagree I would support brand evangelists financially were I the vendor. But they usually will do it for schwag

The right kind of brand ambassador program does not necessarily demand forum participation thereafter, though they encourage it with a full disclosure of the participation.  However, chances are in many cases that you were already saying such nice things about that company and you’re likely to continue.  Because of your past participation, the company wanted to give a token of thanks to show their gratitude for your support.  A brand evangelism program encourages the commentary to be kept positive in the future.  Any company employing such an incentive program is certainly not participating in anything that is manipulative, questionable, or immoral in nature.

Do you think that Royal Caribbean crossed the line?  Or were they just smart enough to start something brilliant that aroused jealousy among those who were not picked for the program?  I’m compelled to suggest that Royal Caribbean has been on the right track throughout this entire ordeal in their innovative marketing tactic that they launched two years ago.  In fact, I recommend that other companies follow suit to encourage positive discourse and interactions.  They, too, should consider instituting a loyalty program that positively reinforces really good feedback about their own products and services.  What do you say, and how would you execute the program?

[ When is Brand Evangelism a Crime? Exploring the Royal Caribbean Promotional Marketing Strategy is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

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Today is my birthday, and I decided to give you all a gift that few of you have been highly anticipating for a few months now. My most popular post on this site — probably by far — was last year’s Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2007 compilation. I spent about 3 days (and nights) on it (without sleep) and I was quite happy with the turnout. This year, I began starting to write this compilation in the first week of December. The collection begins with posts that start in January of 2008 and have been collected and shared in the last 12 months. Like last year, I’ve grouped them into different categories and written short descriptions on each post. There’s no order to the posts; I’ve used my bookmarks and a variety of social sites and peer recommendations to create this list. I hope this year’s list surpasses last year’s. Let me know how I did in the comments.

Here’s how this works: In the Internet Marketing Best Posts “series,” I take posts that are typically timeless — they’re not confined to a specific event or news occurrence — they’re valuable for the long haul in terms of Internet Marketing and creative strategy. Hopefully, you’ll see that these posts are still relevant in a few years down the road.

These posts range from beginner to advanced with a greater emphasis on the more intermediate posts. I’d argue that if you’re starting your Internet Marketing business with not much know-how, you should check out the 2007 posts; in fact, most may still find them relevant regardless of the skill level.

New for 2008: If your article is highlighted in this comprehensive post, we have badges for you! Feel free to link to this post with the top right hand image, which was contributed by David Mihm who specializes in Portland Web Design. Every post is a winner!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

• The SEO Success Pyramid: Matt McGee talks about the process of making great websites. He illustrates this in a graphical pyramid. You can even download it but you have to go to his post to get it.
• Online SEO Tools: The Ultimate Collection: At Search Engine Journal, Ann Smarty has compiled a list of the most valuable tools to perform SEO analysis.
• WordPress SEO: Definitive Guide to High Rankings for Your Blog is written by WordPress optimization expert and coder Joost de Valk and gives you some great tips on how to use WordPress in a search engine friendly fashion.
• How Much Money is a Top Google Ranking Worth to Your Business: Aaron Wall discusses the cost of that #1 link backing up the data with some hard research.
• SEO Mastermind Aaron Wall Brings Bad News: In an interview with Entrepreneur magazine, Aaron Wall talks about all things SEO.
• The Web Developers SEO Cheat Sheet: Danny Dover of SEOmoz shares the “mother of all technical SEO cheat sheets.” Nuff said.
• The SEO Guide to Information Architecture: How do you design a website for efficient crawling by search engines? If you don’t have a clue, Adam Audette is here to help.
• What is the Definition of SEO?: Jeremy Schoemaker asked a number of online marketing experts about their definitions of search engine optimization.
• How to be an SEO Service Provider: So you want to provide search engine optimization services? Here’s what you should do so that you can get the best return for your efforts.
• Don’t Sour Your Link Juice by Forgetting Basic SEO: Loren Baker explains that you could have lots of links — and that’s still not enough if you don’t follow basic search engine optimization techniques.
• 4 Reasons Many Big Brands Downplay SEO: Why aren’t all Fortune 500 companies engaging in SEO? Laura Callow tells you why.
• How to Get New Web Sites to Rank Quickly: Aaron Wall discusses some strategies to get high rankings with a brand new site — and we know those are sites that often need to take time to build trust.
• Keyword Density SEO Myths: Hobo SEO asked a bunch of established SEO experts about their opinions on keyword density.
• How You Can Get Your Google Rankings Back: Ever get a search engine ranking penalty? Aviva Directory did and they tell you what you need to do about it and how to address it.
• Content is NOT Always King and SEO is not always bad: Wil Reynolds explains that search engines can’t choose the best content and those pages with great content may not rank so high.
• Ranking as the Original Source for Content You Syndicate: According to Vanessa Fox, you can get the ranking control over that article that some lame blog just ripped off. As for me, I threaten DMCA takedown notices. It usually works.
• The Beginner’s Checklist for Learning SEO: SEOmoz’s Danny talks again about how newbies can get their SEO learn on.
• SEO Guide for Designers: This is especially useful if you code in Flash or like your graphics.
• The Most Powerful SEO Tactic: Simplify, Simplify, Simplify: Eric Enge simplifies (no pun intended) the essentials of SEO.
• Tools of the SEO Trade: There are a lot of tools out there that make search engine optimization simpler.
• Google Double or Indented Listings: Andy Beard shows you how to get an indented listing on Google.

Social Media: Generic Strategy:

• 50 Ways to Use Social Media: Jeremiah Owyang shows how you can apply social media to some standard social computing objectives.
• What is the ROI for Social Media?: Jason Falls explores the commonly-discussed (but not easily answered) question about social media.
• Scared of Social Media? You May Already be Pro!: Jill Whalen has been active on forums and online communities for 10 years now. But “social media marketing expert?” She didn’t think she was one.
• Top 10 Reasons Why SEOs Fail on Social Media: This is a practical guide for search engine optimizers and their shortcomings with new media.
• The Limitations of Social Media: Social media may seem to be awesome, but sometimes it just doesn’t work.
• The ABCs of Social Media: For every letter of the alphabet, you have a way to relate a word to social media.
• Social Media Marketing: How to Win Friends and Influence People: Sound like a famous book you’ve read? It is. But you can apply these tactics to social media relationships too.
• A Sample Social Media Toolkit: Chris Brogan talks about some of the ways you can tap into the social media field.
• 50 Steps to Establishing a Consistent Social Media Practice: Great tips all in one single post.? What could be better?
• Social Media Will Change Your Business: This is an update to an old article from BusinessWeek on how blogs have changed your business. Not anymore — it’s about social media (which typically encompasses blogs too).
• How Does a Company Dip its Toes in the Conversation?: If you’re new to social media, how do you engage as a company? Let Valeria Maltoni tell you — she’s that good.
• 7 Videos About Social Media You Need to Watch: Samir Balwani has gathered the best videos on social media so that you can further expand your knowledge.
• What I Want a Social Media Expert to Know: If you are Chris Brogan, you might have specific demands of your social media expert.
• Will the Real Social Media Expert Please Stand Up?: On the other hand, if you are Brian Solis, you need to know what to do as an expert and where to listen to the ongoing conversations.
• Intel Social Media Guidelines: Last month, it was discovered that Intel had pushed its social media guidelines out in the open. You can learn a thing or two from it.
• Starting a Social Media Strategy: Perhaps you’d call this a beginner’s piece — perhaps not — Chris Brogan touches upon considerations for implementing social media strategy.
• Big Brand Social Media Interview: Lee Odden interviews Wells Fargo, Home Depot, UPS, and Graco to get a feel of how they are engaging in the social media playground.
• Best Social Media Advice from this Site: Uh, I’m sorry, I just gave you a lot more reading material from Chris Brogan. Please read it after you’re done with this post. That’s all I ask.
• Towards a More Social Organization: Chris Heuer says that we’re becoming more social, so start realizing the importance of this trend and evolve accordingly.
• How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business: Aaron Uhrmacher explains the factors you must consider to see if your social media campaign has had an impact.
• Social Media ROI: Janet Fouts explains other ways to calculate your ROI on social media.
• A List of Social Media Marketing Examples: Peter Kim has an exhaustive list of companies engaging in social media. Is your company on the list?
• Social Media and Business Marketing Links: Related to Peter Kim’s list above, we see other business uses of social media.
• Biggest Mistakes Made by Social Media Gurus: You can still screw up in social media, but you don’t have to. Some people have lived and learned; read the Mashable post to avoid the same mistakes.
• Online Communities and Their Impact on Business: The key to success is engagement, but Michael Mace says that there are some concepts you need to understand first.
• A Social Media Guide: Steve Spalding writes nearly 8000 words on what he’s learned on social media over the past few years. It’s also available in PDF format.
• How to Measure Success in Your Social Media Marketing: So is ROI for social media really hard to calculate? Here are even more ways to measure ROI on your campaigns.
• Social Media Marketing Guide: Barry Welford at Cre8tive Flow talks about political success in social media marketing and explains how to be good at it for business success.
• How to Change the World Using Social Media: Can you really change the world? “Yes — when you turns to we,” Brian Clark says.
• Involve, Create, Discuss, Promote, Measure: Valeria Maltoni gives you 5 key ideas that you must understand fully for social media success.
• How to Champion Social Media at Work: Own social media at your workplace with some solid tactics presented by Jason Falls.

Social Media: Strategy for Social Sites:

• Building a Popular Social Media Profile: Seven Essential Characteristics: If you plan on being active in the social media space (where voting is a big part of promotion), you have to make sure you’re doing the right things.
• Top 10 Reasons Why Great Content Fails on Social Media: In case you’re still emphasizing submissions on social sites, here’s why your content … uh, appears to suck.
• 7 Social Media Websites and their Impact on SEO explores Mixx, Sphinn, Twitter, Digg, delicious, StumbleUpon, and Reddit and shows the positive and negative impact of using each.
• How NOT to Manipulate Social News: A Sphinn Experience: For those not familiar with social news, gaming is clearly something you can spot if you know what to look for.
• How to Commit Social Media Suicide: Some people don’t get social media.
• The 2008 Social Media Network Analysis Report: Brian Chappell reveals geographic, demographic, and traffic data for a whole lot of social media sites.
• 10 of the Best Alternative Social Media Sites because not everything social media is Digg, Mixx, and Reddit.
• 6 Social Media “No-Brainers” You Shouldn’t Forget: Social media tips and tricks that aren’t always on the mind.
• How to Promote Yourself on Social Sites Without Actually “Promoting Yourself”: David Wallace presents a practical way of becoming a social media rockstar.
• The ‘El Farol’ Problem in Social News: Muhammad Saleem explains that the community is happy when social news submissions occur in moderation. Not excess. I suppose most things do very well in moderation.
• SEO Explained for Small Business Owners: If you work in a small business and the articles above scared you, then read this one instead.
• The 10 Commandments of the Social Web: Building a social network? At the minimum, you need to follow some rules, according to Nick O’Neill.
• Social Media Marketing ROI: Metrics and Analysis: If you promote content on social networks, you should have some metrics in place to see how effective your campaign was. Here’s a guide to start with.
• Are You a Super Influencer?: Given social sites, there are new influencers in town. Make way.
• How to Get Started in Social Media: There are so many sites out there, so Shana Albert explains how she got involved and the sites you can use for both business and personal purposes.
• How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Beth Kanter interviews a nonprofit employee to see how he has found success with social media for awareness.
• Free Online Resources for Finding Missing Persons Through Social Media: This is a bit different but still very important as I’ve read about some amazing stories about how people use social sites to reunite old families.? The bottom line is that social sites are great for marketing a lost person and hoping that they can be found again.

Twitter:

• Twitter Wrote his Column For Me: Clearly, this post itself demonstrates the power of Twitter and the collective.
• 7 Tips for New Twitter Users: Shel Israel talks about how you (as a new Twitter user) should use the service for maximum gain.
• 17 Ways You Can Use Twitter: A Guide for Beginners, Marketers, and Business Owners: People are raving about Twitter, but are they using it to its fullest?
• How to Get Customer Service via Twitter: Which companies are listening, and should you join the conversation? If you’re new to the area, you can check out how to start following what pople are saying.
• How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business: This recent post on Copyblogger quotes how many businesses has found success with the microblogging service.
• How to Use Twitter to Build Brand Integrity: These are some solid tips for Twitter users to follow in order to add value to the conversation.
• Why Twitter Matters: BusinessWeek cites examples of why the microblogging website is a must-use for everyone.
• 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business: Chris Brogan covers a lot of ground with this piece.
• The Evolution of Brands on Twitter: Jeremiah Owyang explains how you can evolve your brand using Twitter.
• Getting Intimate (with Customers) on Twitter: Some companies really get it. And they profit. Are you one of them?
• Twitter Goes Mainstream: More and more people are using it. Are you?
• How to Build Community on Twitter: If you want more followers, take some solid advice from Sarah Evans.
• How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter: Guy Kawasaki adds to the list of how you can get more followers on Twitter.
• Building an Effective Business Profile on Twitter: Michael Gray’s guest post on Twitip is golden.? He suggests personalization, professionalism, and humor, among other tips and tricks.
• Twitter Tools for Community and Communications Professionals: Brian Solis is constantly updating this post which includes great tools to make your Twitter experience a much more pleasurable one.
• How to Become a Twitter Rockstar: Now that you’re armed with tools and have the Twitter basics down pat, how do you use Twitter to your advantage?? David Brown explains it all.

Sphinn:

• Beginner’s Guide to Sphinn: Surely there are some of you out there who have never used Sphinn before, but if you are remotely interested in this post, you can imagine that half of the posts I put here were also submitted to Sphinn.? That said, join up and read this Problogger post for some rules of engagement.
• Top 10 Signs You’re Spamming Sphinn gives you more insights into how to use social news sites properly.
• Crappy MP3 Sites, Comment Spamming & Enough Already: Danny Sullivan rants about how there are “search marketers” trying to manipulate Sphinn (and other social news sites). He explores examples and shows how hard it is to be a moderator of a site like this. Hey, I hear you.
• An Analysis of Sphinn: 175 Homepage Homeruns Dissected: This post shows you what people are loving on Sphinn.? It also somewhat correlates to the categories on this post since some topics just happen to be a lot more popular than others.

LinkedIn:

• Why LinkedIn is the One Social Network I Couldn’t Work Without: Jennifer Laycock explains why she hearts LinkedIn.
• Make Your LinkedIn Profile Work for You: Having a LinkedIn profile is one thing. Having a solid LinkedIn profile is a different story.
• Business Uses for LinkedIn: LinkedIn is very powerful, but how do you use it? Valeria Maltoni explains that it’s about community, connections, and more.
• How to Get the Most out of LinkedIn: Mashable’s guest writer Brian Wallace explains how LinkedIn can be used as a valuable tool.
• Elements of a Good LinkedIn Recommendation: If you’re recommending someone on LinkedIn, strive for quality, not quantity.
• 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn: Just in case the articles above didn’t suffice, this one has many more in-depth articles on making LinkedIn work for you.
• How to Use LinkedIn Jake Swearingen of BNET says that you need to create a good profile, build your network, get the most from your connections, and then manage your network.
• Successful Networking Tips for LinkedIn and Facebook: Loren Baker shows that LinkedIn and Facebook aren’t so different and building your network is key.

Digg:

• How to Level the Playing Field with Digg: While I personally don’t like Digg anymore and find that it’s useless for marketers, Skellie think it’s still valuable. (I’d argue “rarely” nowadays.)
• How I Became a Digg Power User with a 75% Popular Ratio: I got banned in October from Digg with a 67% popular ratio and 278 front page stories and offered very similar tips in 2007, but some people still want to use Digg for this kind of thing.? Personally, I think Digg will ban you when you get popular.? The guy who wrote this blog post speaks from the same kind of experience.

Wikipedia:

• Using Wikipedia to Reveal Web Traffic Data: Jonathan Hochman writes a piece on how, when using Wikipedia, you can find out about how much traffic a top search ranking will send.
• How to Overthrow a Wikipedia Result: This is a good tactic but you should use it in moderation!? Don’t get caught!
• Wikipedia 101 for Marketing: The awesome Todd Defren explains how you can use Wikipedia to market your business.? But as many of you who have attended SEO conferences know, don’t do it from your company IP address or face the banhammer.
• 3 Awesome Wikipedia Tools and How they Could be Useful: I’ve never really known of any real good Wikipedia tools except for WikiScanner until this post (and this post doesn’t even talk about that IP scanner program).? ? So there you have it — 4 tools for your Wikipedia enjoyment.
• What to do When Your Company Wikipedia Page Goes Bad: The problem with editing your own company page when you work for the company is that there are moderation issues and biases.? So what can you do once someone adds bad content to that page?? Jessica Bowman tells you how to make the nasties “fade into the background.”

StumbleUpon:

• The Idiot’s Guide to StumbleUpon: Tim Nash, an active StumbleUpon expert, has offered some strategies on using the social discovery tool.
• How to Write Posts that Set StumbleUpon on Fire: Skellie utilizes real-life experience with the social discovery site to show you how you can get a whoosh of good traffic.
• 28 Tips to Make You a StumbleUpon Superstar: I personally love StumbleUpon — a lot. And you should too when you apply these tactics.

Fark:

• Definitive Guide to Fark and Getting Mass Traffic: One of the lesser tapped social media sites among search marketers is Fark. But not for Glen Allsopp, who reviews it here.

Facebook:

• Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Facebook: Guy Kawasaki is right — you probably don’t know some of these things (like #7)!
• Facebook Insider’s Guide to Viral Marketing: This article on docstoc has good tips if you’re looking to market on Facebook.
• 5 Reasons Why Whole Foods Gets Facebook: Businesses can make a difference on Facebook. Whole Foods did.
• Facebook Ads 101: How to Set Up and Track Facebook Ads: While people like free Facebook advertising, there are wonderfully targeted ads that may even be more effective.? Now you can understand how to leverage them.
• 5 Tips for Promoting Your Business Page on Facebook: If you created a business page on Facebook and actually want people to know about it, you might want to make sure it’s one that people actually are interested in joining.
• Facebook for Those Over 40: How do you explain Facebook to a group of folks who find this technology a little daunting?? We’re so involved in social media today that we may lose sight of the beginner explanation.
• 3 New Ways to Target Your Audience with Facebook Pages: Did you know that you are able to restrict access to Facebook pages by demographic information?? I didn’t.? But doing this can ensure that you get the right kinds of users.
• The 25 Most Popular Pages on Facebook: There’s nothing truly eye-opening about this discovery, but you can learn a thing or two about the power of marketing that has made some of these individuals so popular.
• Facebook Pages and Local Search Engine Optimization: Andrew Shotland offers a little-known tip on how you can possibly find prospects via Facebook through search.
• Facebook vs. LinkedIn: Which is Better for Business? In a 7-page article, ComputerWorld assesses the pros and cons of both.

delicious:

• 6 Ways to Make Life Easier with delicious: How many of you actually use delicious as a search engine? Maybe you should.
• How to Analyze Your Site with Delicious: Ann Smarty dissects the various parts of delicious.com and shows you how you can learn more about your website.

Flickr:

• How to Market on Flickr: While Flickr itself isn’t seen as a community that you would market to, you can find out how to become a respected community member AND market your services as well.
• An Insider’s Guide to Marketing on Flickr: Rohit Bhargava gives some very detailed tips on how you can use Flickr to successfully market products.

FriendFeed:

• FriendFeed Can Disrupt Search and Reshape Advertising: Steve Rubel offers his initial impressions of FriendFeed.
• 25 Different Uses for FriendFeed: FriendFeed power users Michael Fruchter and Louis Gray team up (well, Mike posted the guest post on Louis’s blog) to share some tips on how you can get the most out of this service.? As an FYI, I LOVE FriendFeed (and as another FYI, I said the same about Twitter in 2007 and everyone joined up in 2008.? Just sayin’).? By the way, Louis has a ton of great posts on FriendFeed on his blog and this isn’t the only one.

Blogging:

• The Most Important Difference Between Websites and Blogs: Tad switched his website over to a blog. He reflects on why this was a smart move.
• 10 Ways to Improve Blog Traffic in 30 Minutes or Less gives you some lesser-known (or implemented) strategies to bring you (possibly) more blog visitors.
• You’re Not Just a Writer, You’re the Editor-in-Chief: Dosh Dosh explains that your approach toward blogging needs to be more than just of a freelance nature.
• What Suggestions Would You Offer a Beginning Blogger?: You need to “learn to” do a few things as a blogger. Bill Slawski explains what they are.
• Practical Guide to Starting a Corporate Blog: Jason Falls discusses the steps you need to take before you actually launch that much-needed corporate blog.
• How to Start a Professional Blog: 10 Tips for New Bloggers: Andrew Chen gives some detailed insights on how your new blog can take off.
• 10 Commandments of Business Blogging: If you want to be taken seriously as a business blogger, there are some rules you need to follow.
• Does Blogging Really Work? Here’s the Proof: Mack Collier uses the examples of Dell Hell and Stormhoek to show that blogging is a powerful marketing tool for both the positive and the negative.
• 27 Secrets to Linking Like a Master Networker: This post shows how you can network via blogging.
• 45 Ways to Power Up Your Blog: Here are small things you can implement to make your blog a little more appealing to your audience and search engines.
• How Much Do Top Tier Bloggers and Social Media Consultants Get Paid? We Asked Them!: Marshall Kirkpatrick, you didn’t ask me!
• How to Blog Design Style Guide goes into detail about blog design, from the header to the content area to the comments.
• 3 Phases of Flagship Blog Growth or How to Fall in Love with Blogging: Tad explains that perseverance is important to keep your blog going strong.
• How to Get Piles of Links, Subscribers, and Comments: Skellie explains the ways you can use your blog for awareness and then some.
• The Ultimate Guide to a Wildly Sticky Successful and Outstanding Blog: Liz Strauss takes a bunch of great blogging guides and puts them all together for this tool for serious bloggers.
• 27 Resources fr Evaluating Blogging ROI: Is blogging working for you? You can check against the experts to find out.
• A Sample Blogging Workflow: From the goals of blogging to the tools you should use, Chris nails it.
• 21 Ways to Make Your Blog or Website Sticky: Yes, this is from Darren Rowse at Problogger. Yes, it’s about blogs. It’s also about websites. Read it whether or not you have a blog as it has some great tips on keeping your visitors hooked.
• Ariana Huffington Shares 4 Secrets of Creating a Successful Blog: Learn from someone who knows. HuffPo is a very popular blog.
• Case Study: The Launch of a New Blog: A serious blogger from Traffikd shows how his third blog fared after it launched.
• Why Start a Blog and 25 Tips to Make it Work: A very in-depth article on why you should create a blog and engage in blogging.
• The Sweeney Todd Guide to Blogging Sonia Simone equates characteristics of Sweeney Todd to blogging, marketing, and communication.? An example: Sweeney Todd improvised to get multiple streams of income; bloggers can strategize to get different sources for readers.
• Is Your Blog Going for the Gold? This article discusses the pros and cons of blogging for businesses.? One of the main cons, of course, is the fact that you may be starting a blog with no brand recognition whatsoever.? That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, though.

Viral Marketing:

• The Top 10 Viral Marketing Campaigns of All Time: Patrick Altoft reviews the most popular YouTube videos and explains why they rock.
• Hard (but Important) Lessons About Viral Marketing: Having realistic expectations is important so that you don’t fail at your viral marketing campaign.
• The Viral Marketing Glossary: Dan Zarrella gives definitions for a bunch of terms related to viral marketing.
• What is Viral Marketing?: Seth Godin’s post from the last day of 2008 is the reason why I held publication of this post till 2009.? He explains viral marketing and then shows a case study of how it works.

Link Building:

• Link Building: A Complete Walkthrough: Many of you may be reading this and have no idea about link building at all. That’s where Saad Kamal’s in-depth introductory guide comes in.
• The Fundamentals of Link Building: Adam Audette also gives you some in-depth but beginner information into the art of link building.
• 11 Experts on Link Development Speak Out: Rae Hoffman has gathered some great authorities in the area of link building and asked them several questions about sources, strategy, and more.
• Link Building Secrets Revealed by Top Linking Experts: In this article, twelve link experts talk about lesser known strategies. The report is also available in PDF format.
• The 30 Easiest Was to Get Links and Exposure suggests some strategies to get more links to your website.
• Link Building Strategies: 69 Solid Tactics for 2009 tells you even more ways to get links to your site.
• 30 Ways to Get Links Naturally and Stop Link Building: On the other hand, if link building is too time consuming, you may want to think of other strategies.
• A Linkbuilding Method So Effective I Can’t Believe It’s Not Blackhat: The basic premise is that you should find pages/sites that used to offer a service and no longer do. The fill that void.
• Where Do You Start Your Link Marketing Campaign?: Wiep Knol discusses some strategies on where you can think of gaining some new links.
• 6 Sure-Fire Tactics to Re-Ignite Your Linkbait: You wrote something awesome. It sucked on your targeted social media site. Now what?
• How Getting a Link is Like Picking Up a Woman: Link building is not much different than flirting. Really.
• There’s No Such Thing as a Worthless Link: …because they all end up pointing to your site, right? But Deb Mastaler shows that there’s more.
• Get In Touch With Your Inner Link Self: Finding out where your customers go and targeting those areas is a golden way to get links.
• The Definitive List of Link Building Techniques in 2008: Jeff Quipp gathered every single link building tip he could find.
• Link Exchanges: It’s Not the Size of the PR, but How You Use it: Not everyone likes link exchanges (raises hand), but then again, I’m a blogger who gets 384824 link exchange emails a week.? However, there are legitimate non-blog websites that get a lot.? The question: how do you research sites for link exchanges?? David Leonhardt offers solid strategies on how to choose sites for link building and link exchanges.
• The Ultimate Guide to Internal Linking and Part 2: In two posts, Pete Wailes uses some PageRank formula to guide you through an internal linking strategy and then brings quantum theory into it.? Yes, really.

Reputation Management:

• Dealing with “Impossible” Online Reputation Challenges: Brett Borders goes through the various problems relating to reputation management and lets you know if they’re solvable — or not.
• Five Steps for Recovering from an Online Reputation Crisis: Two different events, two different responses. You need to handle your reputation issue appropriately.
• 12 Reputations Every Company Should Monitor Online: When you are a public facing company, reputation management issues can come at you at all different sides. Make sure you have your bases covered.
• How to Remove Negative Posts and Links: From asking to suing, you have a way to [usually] remove those bad search results.
• How to Bury Negative Online Mentions of You: Search Engine Watch covers some intermediate-level strategies on how to deal with a reputation management crisis.
• The M&Ms of Online Reputation Management: We’re not talking candy here.? Actually, we’re talking M&M&M&M: monitor, manage, measure, and mediate.
• Digital Reputation Management with SEO, Social Media, and PR: Taking a proactive approach toward ORM (online reputation management) is important.? This post touches upon the surface and unfortunately Lee Odden discussed the rest in person at a conference.
• Reputation Management: Because You’re Worth It: In a lighthearted post, a female working for a search engine marketing agency explains how reputation management is like a beauty emergency.
• Treat Me Mean, I Need the Reputation Tom Critchlow shows you what negative reputation looks like.
• Online Reputation Management: What Goes Around May Be Total Crap: Kim Krause Berg talks about the ethics of reputation management and then some.
• Pre-emptive Reputation Management Comes of Age: Don’t fret about reputation managment.? Tackle it before it becomes a problem with preemptive reputation management.? ? The ideas Jeff Quipp presents in his article are really clever.
• Reputation Crisis Management: 8 SEO Triage Tips: Marty Weintraub says that reputation management isn’t much different than SEO.
• Reputation Management Tips from Around the Web: Many search marketing experts weigh in on one very important reputation management tip.
• Online Reputation Management for the Small Business Owner Providing high quality service will avoid the reputation management issues you could encounter.? If you get a negative review but provide great service thereafter, the newer positive reviews will mitigate the negative review.
• Ten Tactics that Could Save Your Online Reputation: Perhaps you’re not in an online reputation crisis yet.? Maybe you’ll never have to be if you read these tactics.
• Your Seven-Step Online Reputation Crisis Plan: If you already have a problem on your hands, now you need to create a strategy.? In seven steps, you can successfully avoid the crisis.? ? Here’s how.
• Reputation Management and Defending Your Brand: This is a good beginner article for smaller businesses and gives some solid tips on how your local business can be more visible in a positive way.
• Online Reputation Management is Hot — But is it Ethical? Some companies discuss their failures due to a reputation management issue.? Others talk about how they are helping address the issue.
• Online Reputation Management for Individuals: We’ve talked about business reputation management, but you can still lose your job using social media channels and lose out on good opportunities.? Don’t forget that your personal brand is still something you may want to protect.

Analytics:

• 8 Awesome Google Analytics Hacks, Tips, and Tricks offers tips on how to get more out of Google Analytics rather than what comes out of the box. Note: Some programming may be required!
• The Huge Collection of Google Analytics Tips: In case the previous link wasn’t enough for you, get tracking of your outgoing links, links to banner ads, downloads, and more.
• How to Use Bounce Rate as a Metric to Improve Your Website Performance: A lot of people ignore bounce rate. Maybe you shouldn’t.
• 8 Stupid Things Webmasters Do to Mess Up Their Analytics: Google Analytics isn’t that accurate after all. Find out if you’re being impacted.
• How to Analyze and Improve the Bounce Rate for Your Website: Dosh Dosh gives insights into the hated bounce rate and then suggests strategies on how to reduce that percentage.
• Context is King Baby! Go Get Your Own: Avinash Kaushik argues that the single most important missing ingredient in understanding your analytics is the context you can place around the analytics data you’re provided with.
• Using Stats and Goal Tracking for Your Blog: Want analytics for your blog?? Michael Gray gives some tips on how you can get some.? And yes, you should.

Personal Branding:

• Resumes are for Sh!t: The 4 Things You Really Need: Want to build your personal brand? Dave McClure says you need LinkedIn, a blog, keywords, and social media.
• How to Get Noticed: Jeremiah Owyang offers tactics for becoming noticed in this space.
• Seth Godin: Profile of a Marketing Guru: How’d Seth Godin score his own action figure? Read this.
• Gary Vaynerchuk’s Keynote at Web 2.0 Expo NY: Sure, while this is a video (!) and I still emphasize articles in my yearly post, I actually attended this 15 minute keynote, and it’s a real morale booster. Watch it. It’s worth it.
• Why You Need to Care More About Your Personal Brand: Mitch Joel explains why personal branding is important.
• We Are in a Recession, so Build Your Brand on the Internet Now: It’s a perfect time to build your Internet presence.? This Internet Marketing firm did it for their clients by establishing its presence on multiple channels.? Find out which ones they used (and feel free to just use this as a starting point — there are more channels to leverage!).
• Personal Branding: What a Difference a Year Makes: Dan Perry was nobody in 2007.? (No offense, Dan!)? But in 2008, he became somebody according to Google.? What were his takeaways?

Local Search:

• Local Search Ranking Factors collects advice from 20 experts in the area of local search marekting on a variety of ranking factors.
• Local SEOs Share Geolocation Tips from Around the World: The Distilled guys who are in the UK ask several SEOs around the world about how to optimize for search engines.
• The Mother of All SMX Local/Mobile Recaps: David Mihm attended a conference and shared the top takeaways. The post provides very valuable information even though it’s a conference summary!
• Local vs. Traditional SEO: Why Citation is the New Link This is a very detailed post explaining some new discoveries about local SEO.? Links aren’t that important in local SEO, and David explains why.
• Website Optimization for Telephone Leads: Surely there are companies out there that get a lot of leads via phone.? If your phone number is prominently displayed on your website, you will likely get a lot of good leads. (I’d add that it’d be a smart idea to get a number specific for web-only inquiries to ensure that the lead came from there.)
• Free Local Marketing Options that Bring Real Traffic: Mat Siltala takes a look at easy local search tweaks you can use that will bring some valuable traffic.? The sites he mentions are high-trafficked ones, and if you cover your bases, you can benefit from a gift that keeps on giving.
• How to Create Effecitve Local Business Landing Pages Are you missing any of these essential elements from your landing pages?

Content Development:

• The Secret to Compelling Content: Anna Bourland describes how you should organize your website and create a hook that drives your visitors to perform a desired action.
• How to Have a Constant Flow of Content Ideas: Sometimes, getting that idea in your mind is the hardest obstacle. Here’s some help.
• Writing Killer Headlines: Top 20 Viagra SPAM Email Subject Lines: I feel like my email subscribers just got this email blocked due to this actual post, but it’s a REALLY good read, so I had to include it.
• Link Bait Ideas: Lyndon Antcliff gives some strategy into creating the ultimate piece of content.
• 12 Tips on Creating Content for Social Media: Let’s face it, people are talking social media nowadays. It’s time to create content that works.
• The 5-Step POWER Copywriting Method: Want to be persuasive and rock? Follow some guidelines.
• 5 Great Marketing Lists and What You Can Learn from Each One: Make a list. Profit. Rohit Bhargava explains the benefits of 5 popular lists.
• How to Maximize Current Events for Social Media: The 10e20 blog shows what you can do with current events to create compelling content.
• How to Write an Article in 20 Minutes: Let me put it this way: this article did NOT take 20 minutes to write.
• Writing Content that Works for a Living: The key takeaways of this article are to make it simple and do it right.

Web Development:

• 50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Website: Explore questions of accessibility, navigation, design, content, security, and more with this checklist.
• The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period: Stoney deGeyter breaks down the intricacies of web design into easy-to-digest categories with this exhaustive but awesome checklist.
• I Can Make Your Site Run 10 Times Faster: Site not running fast enough? Search engine spiders and visitors may not appreciate it. Mike Peters tells you what you can do to get that needed boost.
• 101 Five-Minute Fixes to Incrementally Improve Your Website is a great checklist on usability, writing, and design, and refers to 101 more articles just in case this list of posts wasn’t enough.
• A Design is Finished When: Twenty-three designers offer their insights on when your website design is complete and you can take it the next level.
• Let’s Talk Landing Pages: Rebecca Kelley at SEOmoz shares some really great tips on how to make the most out of your landing pages.
• Website Checklist: Getting to the Close: Peter da Vanzo outlines the steps for beginner web designers to get visitors to perform a desired action.

Affiliate Marketing:

• Five Effective Copywriting Tactics for Affiliate Marketing: Want to sell your affiliate offers? At the minimum, make sure you follow these tactics.
• Jonathan Volk Interview: If you don’t know Jonathan Volk, meet this kid through this interview, because he’s in his early 20s and is making 6 figures a month.
• Three Killer Content Strategies for Building Affiliate Marketing Assets: Brian Clark gives even more affiliate marketing tips.
• Only Wanting the “Thrill of the Chase”: Why do most affiliate marketers fail?? Because they have an initial rush of motivation but then get annoyed at the hard work required, according to affiliate marketing mastermind Rae Hoffman.
• Managing Risk: Legal Issues for Merchants and Affiliate Marketers Affiliate marketing is not a risk-free endeavor, so be sure you are aware of all the risks before you take the plunge.
• The Diary of a PPC Newbie and Why You Should Expand: As you’ll see, this article isn’t really about Pay-Per-Click.? ? It’s how you can use PPC and affiliate marketing to make some money.? Don’t you want to do that by now?
• 81 Useful Affiliate Marketing Resources: If you’re ready to start with affiliate marketing, here are some tools that can make your life easier.
• Making Money Online with Local Affiliate Programs: This great post by Jeremy Schoemaker was suggested by @ronhekier and gives some great advice on how you can make ends meet especially if you just got laid off during the recession.

Domains and Domaining:

• How to Pick a Kickass Domain Name: Lisa Barone gives solid tips on choosing the domain name that’s perfect for your company.
• On Domain Names, Size and Quality DO Matter: Daniel Scocco looks at the top 250 domains on Alexa and shows how the most popular sites actually all have very powerful domain names.
• How to Find Available Domain Names: With the Google AdWords tool and a bulk whois checker, you may be able to get some great SEO-friendly domain names.
• 2018: A Domaining Odyssey: Experts weigh in on the future of domaining in this article.
• How to (Really) Make Money with Domain Names: Finding a good domain name is half the battle.? Once you’re done with that, there are some good strategies you can use to make money with them.? One key is defensible traffic.

AdWords/PPC:

• Eight Keyword Research Mistakes that are Costing You Money: You may be spending lots on Google AdWords, but are you spending smartly? Christine Churchill gives you some points to review.
• Marketing Lessons Learned from Pay-Per-Click Analytics shows what you can learn about general marketing from reviewing your PPC analytics.
• Landing Page Optimization: 5 Elements that can Impact Conversion Rates: While this could fit in this blog post’s “web development” category, it is a better match for giving you the biggest bang for your buck if you engage in pay-per-click marketing.
• How I Optimize My PPC Campaigns: Harrison Gevirtz, a teenage genius and CEO of a company, teaches us tactics that made him successful in a guest post on Shoemoney.com.
• PPC Spend Should be More than SEO: John W. Ellis explains the correlation between Pay-Per-Click and Search Engine Optimization but still contends that your PPC budget should exceed your SEO budget.
• 7 Ways to Save Money During a PPC Campaign: Saad Kamal offers practical tips on how to reduce your Google AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing ad spend.

Internet Marketing:

• The Internet Marketing List: 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren’t: Ian Lurie presents what you may want to put into a checklist — things you should be doing on your website and that you may have ignored.
• How I Turned My Mediocre Website into a Million Dollar Business: Erica Douglass speaks from experience. The bottom line: customers deserve great value.
• Colorize Your Brand: How Color Builds Your Brand: Ann Smarty presents “color in business” theory and shows its application to Internet technology.
• Firefox 3 Shows How a Good Landing Page Can Convert Seven Million Visitors a Day: Test, retest, and enjoy the benefits.
• The Digital Rules of Engagement: If you’re going to engage, make sure you know what you’re doing. This AdWeek article ties in well with social media, but it has some other important concepts that caused me to put it in the Internet Marketing category instead.
• The Internet Marketing Handbook: SEOmoz has compiled a huge list of almost 100 tools and resources. Sweet!
• 14 Must-Have Resources to Launch a Small Business: How many people have you spoken to who say they want to start a business but don’t know how?? Maybe you should point them to this checklist.? (It’ll help if they know exactly what kind of business they’re looking to start, though!)
• The “Poochie” Effect: While I love social media, one-way advertising is still practiced by many companies. In this post, you’ll consider the questions that you need to have answered before you engage on an advertising campaign.

General Marketing:

• Top Experts Dish with their Best Kept Marketing Secrets: Some of the most brilliant experts provide their one best marketing secret.
• 38 Things I Wish I Knew When I started in Marketing offers some advice that I kind of still don’t apply myself.
• Tell Us Your Most Outrageously Creative Money-Saving or Business Growth Tip: Anita Campbell delivers again by gathering expert quotes and offering some brilliant insights into what they’ve done to take their businesses to the next level.
• What Do You Know?: Seth Godin’s list that is 3 years old (and counting) never grows old. Yes, this is a reprint from 2008 with some newer tips.
• The Essentials of Guerrilla Marketing: Jay Conrad Levinson shares concepts that will make your business rock.
• 8 Strategies for Successful Realtions with Clients: Since social media is within the scope of Internet Marketing and is a lot about customer service, client relations should follow. If you have good relationships from the outset, you may avoid those reputation management crises and more.
• How to Deliver the Perfect Client Pitch: Client acquisition is all the rage, but are you actually getting new clients?? If not, perhaps you need to adjust your pitch.
• Why Clients Won’t Buy: The Hierarchy of Choice: You could be an awesome salesperson but your customers still won’t necessarily buy from you. Find out why.

Best of Techipedia 2008
I typically don’t put posts from my blog in the “Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008″ list, but this year, since I’ve grown a considerable number of subscribers, I’ve decided to give new users the opportunity to read the two best posts without feeling that they need to dig through the archives.? Of course, if you don’t mind reading the other posts I’ve written, by all means, go ahead.? There’s some good stuff there that I’m not highlighting here (including two on FriendFeed, which is a great content discovery and community building tool which simply doesn’t get much love).

• The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette (or Netiquette) Handbook: My most popular post of December 2008 was about social media etiquette and goes through a variety of social sites to suggest what should and shouldn’t be done.? The comment discussion is great as well.
• What Traits Define a Social Media Marketer?: Experts on social media marketing weigh in on the essential characteristics of the ideal social media marketing guru.

Thanks again to the Portland Web Design company for their awesome badges (and to Jill for the idea).? Also, thanks for all your contributions to this series.? Stay tuned for next year’s!

Badges: If you would like to use any alternative badges on your site, please choose one of the below and copy the corresponding text on your website:

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Happy 2009!

[ Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008 is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

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If you haven’t yet seen the Language Trainers Accent Game, it has won the “best viral marketing strategy of 2008″ (in my eyes). The idea behind this game is to listen to videos of individuals from all over the world speaking a sentence or reciting the lines of a poem, and you need to guess where the accent is from. You even get bonus points for guessing exactly where (regionally) the individual is from, which gives this game added appeal. Let me put it this way — it’s hard!

I was able to interview Dave, one of the brilliant minds behind the company and the game, and he has given some really great information about the viral marketing piece, including the costs and the execution. Sit back and enjoy, and then play the accent game to see how an excellently-crafted viral marketing campaign can really help get people talking about you and your products.

Tamar: What does your company do?
Dave: Basically we’re a language training company. We organise language courses worldwide for businesses, one-to-one students, and small groups. You contact us and tell us what language you want to learn and where you live or work, and we’ll find a qualified native teacher of that language and arrange a customised course for you to take place at your home or workplace. The whole thing is centred on personal tuition and the student’s convenience.

Tamar: What inspired you to do the accent game?
Dave: Well, we can’t actually take all the credit for the game. We hired a Brighton SEO company to come up with some ideas for something to put on our site that would not only be fun, but also show that we at Language Trainers have a genuine interest and passion for languages. They pitched us the accent game idea and we loved it.

Tamar: How long did it take from the first initial brainstorm to come up with the game?
Dave: From the initial meeting to completion of the Flash game, I think it took Upstream about a month to make. The exciting thing is that all we need to do is get more footage of more accents (we encourage people to send in their own videos on the site) and we’ll be able to make as many of these games as we want.

Tamar: How long did the actual execution of the game (filming, traveling, etc) take?
Dave: Both ourselves and Upstream Connections are lucky enough to be based in Brighton and Hove, in the UK. Not only is it one of the more pleasant places to live in the country (in my opinion anyway!), but we’ve always got so many people from countless different cultures and backgrounds, making it the ideal place to get the footage for something like this. We didn’t have to travel far to find all these different accents!

Overall we could have had a much wider scope of accents but seeing as we wanted this to be the first of many, we figured we’d keep it quite basic at first. The filming took place on three separate days, during one week of good weather!

Tamar: How did you find the people to participate in the game? Were they hesitant? Did you offer them any compensation or did they just participate for the fun of it?
Dave: Well, we waited for a sunny day and sent two people out onto the streets of Brighton with a camera. Most people were obviously hesitant at somebody walking up to them and asking if they had an interesting accent, but it was all done in a very friendly way. We didn’t offer any compensation — well, we filmed a couple of guys outside a pub and bought them a pint afterwards — we only took their details so we could tell them about the game when it was complete. A few people involved were friends of people in the office, and those were filmed in their own homes.

Tamar: I noticed that you asked a few people in Central Park in Manhattan. Where else did you go to film these users that were interviewed?
Dave: Well, I’m pretty impressed that some of my hometown’s parks look enough like Central Park to be confused with it! Everything was filmed in Brighton.
Tamar: Oops.

Tamar: Did you have a camera crew?
Dave: We had one cameraman and one other person armed with a clipboard, canvassing pretty much everybody who walked past. About 1 in 20 people stopped, and 1 in 5 of them were up for reading 2 lines of a poem for us. Never underestimate the power of a clipboard!

Tamar: Did you scrap any footage?
Dave: Of course. We originally had enough people to have them do a single line of the poem each instead of 2, but we thought 2 lines would give a much better opportunity to spot the accent. However, we’re keen to get as many accents together as we can for future games and projects, so if anybody wants to be involved in the future, please send in your videos!

Tamar: How much (approximately) did the whole project cost?
Dave: Well, it’s hard to say! We didn’t pay people to speak their bit, and Upstream Connections dealt with the rest of the job. The price for the project was somewhere in the region of $12,000, and we’re happy that the groundwork has now been laid to make future accent games very cheaply.

Tamar: The game has been live for about a week so far. What are the initial reactions (besides mine, which is “this is totally awesome!!!”)?
Dave: So far we’ve had an overwhelmingly positive response from both the people to whom we’ve distributed the link, as well as the social media crowd. We’ve also discovered that people are finding it very difficult — we deal with so many different languages every day that we actually thought it was going to be too easy — certain accents at least! The ones that most people are getting wrong are the Hungarian and Lithuanian accents, which I guess isn’t particularly surprising.

We’re really glad you enjoyed it, and we’re really happy with the response we’ve got. We’ve got a Spanish version coming, and eventually we are hoping to extend this to a bigger scale — The Accent Project. Once we’ve collated enough material we want to start creating a global database of national and regional accents and keep adding to it over time — it’s something of an ambitious plan but one that we hope to achieve over time.

Conclusion
The success of Language Trainers and this viral marketing strategy — which is still new enough that most of you probably haven’t even heard of it — indicates that you really can succeed with social media if you have the right tactics in mind and think about the community above your own needs. Of course, the important thing is to consider relevance and ensure that your game or viral strategy somewhat relates to your product or service.

Some of the greatest pieces of viral marketing are those that engage the user but also turn regular people into internet superstars. The internet society has evolved in the past few years; now everything is now all about you, and embracing the talent of the “amateur” (in Andrew Keen speak) is a way for companies to acknowledge and empower everyday people but also to implicitly compel them to share this material. It spreads like wildfire.

And that’s the power of the viral marketing.

(By the way, I only scored a 17 on the game!)

[ Is Viral Marketing for Everyone? An Interview with Language Trainers, Creators of the Accent Game is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

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In one of the most brilliant marketing moves of all time from a social media perspective, alternative rock band Weezer created an awesome video for their new single, “Pork and Beans,” using internet superstars from a handful of successful YouTube videos. Here’s a look at their amazing creation:

These are all the original YouTube stars. All Weezer did was bring them together to create a revolutionary video that should change the way you think about your marketing approach. Included in this video is Tay Zonday of Chocolate Rain fame, the Blendtec’s famous “Will it Blend” blender (can you spot it?), Miss Teen South Carolina, the kid behind the famous Romanian Numa Numa video, All Your Base are Belong to Us, Peanut Butter Jelly Time, the “stupid” ninja guy, and a guy who made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for wearing the most t-shirts at any time, among many other internet celebrities. (If you didn’t know about any of these memes, you need to venture out farther and scope out your territory.)

It’s simple, really. Take something that’s already popular — in this case, a bunch of internet memes that caught on virally by themselves — and combine the most memorable parts to reach your target audience. The video has been posted to YouTube numerous times since May 23rd and has already seen over 4 million views. Plus, the song has been in my head for the last 3 days.

Weezer shows that they understand the community of addicted internet users. This video is already spreading like wildfire.

All you need is a bit of creativity and the willpower to make it happen.

The takeaways are simple: look at who you’re targeting, review what they find interesting, and be inventive.

[ Viral Marketing: Weezer Gets it Right is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

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Thought you had enough of the greatest Internet Marketing posts of 2007? Well, unfortunately, your reading list has just lengthened. Matt McGee over at Small Business SEM has compiled his own list of the “best posts of 2007″ in a site with a brilliantly and cleverly chosen title, the SEMMYS (Search Marketing Emmys). In addition to a bit over overlap from my previous post, Matt covers other categories pertinent to search marketing, including local search, search technology (e.g. robots.txt, IP questions for hosting, etc.), small business, analytics (he dedicates a whole section to this one!), rants, and funny posts about the search marketing industry in general.

I’m pleased to announce that I will be judging the category on Blogs and Blogging along with Michael Gray. Since I love blogs about blogging (really, I do!), this is the perfect match. (Thanks, Matt!)

I’m also pleasantly surprised to see that seven blog posts of mine on three blogs have somehow been nominated in six different categories. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Top 6 Ideas for Incredible Viral Content (Viral Marketing, posted here on Techipedia)
• How to Use StumbleUpon for Your Business: The Definitive Guide (Social Media, posted on the 10e20 Blog)
• Analytics on the Cheap: 6 Free Stats Package for the Startup or Small Business Owner (Analytics, posted on the 10e20 blog)
• Using Paid Search? Here’s How You Can Maximize the Impact of Your Ads (PPC, 10e20 blog)
• Online Publicity and Link Building: An Eric Ward Webcast (Link Building, 10e20 blog)
• Ethical Link Building Incentives (Link Building, posted on Search Engine Roundtable)
• Impact of Changing Registrar Data on Search Rankings (SEO, Search Engine Roundtable)

So while you’re reading these posts, I’d love to hear your feedback on your favorites, and I’d also like to thank Matt for arranging these awesome awards and for web developer David Mihm (the man behind the sleek SEMMYS web design) for creating such an appealing site. Seriously, it rocks.

It will be an exciting next few weeks while we — and then you — choose the best posts of the year.

[ More Great Internet Marketing Posts for 2007 is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

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Last year, I ended 2006 with a great (and still pertinent) list of blog posts and articles that I felt were really the best in their class in the area of Internet Marketing. This year, I present you my favorite timeless posts of 2007, complete with descriptions about each blog post (which more than quadrupled the workload for me this time around, especially because I tripled the amount of links, but I had fun!) (Disclaimer: I’m certain that even with this list in excess of 250 links, I forgot a bunch of posts, so if you have any additional recommendations, please feel free to comment and I’ll add them!)

By the way, I still haven’t fully embraced video yet, so this will only include written articles. Maybe next year, folks!

Social Media Sites: General

• The Big Boys of Social Bookmarking: The Top 20 Sites (10e20): Chris Winfield ranks the top 20 social bookmarking sites by their Alexa rankings and gives a short description of what each does — in case you haven’t ventured beyond Digg.
• 24 Do-Follow Social Bookmarking Sites that Actually Work (Caroline Middlebrook): Get some powerful links on some of these lesser-known social sites.
• Social Networking: Ages 20-60 and Up (Muhammad Saleem): Did you know that the older folk also embrace social networking? What are the most popular sites in these age groups?
• Online Networkng and the Professions that Use It (Muhammad Saleem): There are a lot of niche social sites around, but did you know what they are?
• Top 29 Niche Social Media Sites (That Actually Send Traffic): Andy Hagans consistently updates this list with some great resources that aren’t necessarily being tapped into by many folks, but maybe it’s time for things to change.
• 83 Social News Sites – Categorized by Niche (Square Oak): Brendan Picha lists another handful of social media sites in case you’ve lost your taste for the mainstream sites.

Facebook

• The Facebook Marketing Bible: 24 Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook (Inside Facebook): Justin Smith shows how Facebook includes a variety of channels that spread the word in a very in-depth blog post.
• 9 Reasons You Should be Using and Watching Facebook (Sugarrae): There’s a lot of marketing potential in Facebook, and Rae shows you why.
• 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally (Web Worker Daily): Networking on Facebook is precisely what you make of it. If you have the mindset to make Facebook a professional tool, you certainly can turn it into one.
• The Updated Unofficial Smartass Facebook Guide (Sugarrae): People still don’t know how to use Facebook. Rae explains all.
• 10 Ways to Use Facebook to Promote Your Business for Free (After the Launch): How do you promote your business on Facebook? Easy.
• Facebook Ads: Will They Work for You? (SEO Space): Jody Nimetz highlights the pros of opting for Facebook ads.
• Facebook Flyers Pro Taking Off (Optimize and Prophesize): Jonathan Mendez illustrates the ease of targeted Facebook ads.

Digg

• How to Become a Digg Top User Without Doing Anything Shady (10e20): If you still want to hit the Digg’s top users, Chris explains what’s involved in the time investment on Digg.
• It’s the (Other) Algorithm, Stupid: Understanding DiggRank (Search Engine Land): Muhammad Saleem examines what is known about the Digg algorithm and dispels common myths.
• To Shout or Not to Shout: The Digg Dilemma (Brent Csutoras): Brent asked many top Digg users what their thoughts were on using Digg’s new shout feature.

Reddit

• Reddit: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About It (10e20): Guest writer Maki talks about how to submit links to Reddit, to hit the front page, and to become a power user.
• 6 Things that Work Right Now on Reddit (10e20): We saw the introduction to Reddit, but what else can we learn? Well, 13-year-old Reddit genius Adam Fuhrer provides his thoughts. (This kid is awesome.)
• Reddit Tips from the Top Dog on Reddit (Social News Watch): How do you become a top user on Reddit? It’s not much different than other social networks, and a top user will talk you through some lessons he’s learned while he climbed the Reddit ladder.
• Five Ways to Leverage Traffic from Reddit (Single Grain): Sujan Patel explains that you can build you Reddit profile with some simple steps.

StumbleUpon

• How to Become a Top StumbleUpon User (or Why You Shouldn’t Really Bother) (Dosh Dosh): Maki gives a straight honest assessment of the social bookmarking site. It’s not only about the algorithm but on understanding how SU can be used for content discovery and sharing.
• How to Use StumbleUpon for Your Business: The Definitive Guide (10e20): I walked through some of the basics of StumbleUpon, and this guide still definitely points you in the right direction, but don’t be surprised if you see an updated guide posted sometime in the near future!
• Internet Marketer’s Guide to StumbleUpon (ViperChill): A beginner’s guide into using StumbleUpon for your marketing efforts.
• StumbleUpon – A Blogger’s Best Friend (Newest on the Net): A beginner article from Fred Peters about how to use StumbleUpon to gain traffic to your sites.
• For Photographers: How to Optimize StumbleUpon for Photo-Blogging Traffic (Muhammad Saleem): It’s all about the StumbleUpon PhotoBlog it! menu item.
• StumbleUpon Mathematics for Stumblers (The Venture Skills Blog): Tim Nash tries to explain the StumbleUpon algorithm.
• 7 Ways to Use StumbleUpon as a Discovery Tool (Dipping into the Blogpond): One of the most important elements of StumbleUpon discovery is one that nobody talks about (and one I intended to write about awhile ago). Here’s a starter guide on using Stumble discovery to get some great ideas.
• StumbleUpon Networking: How to Easily Share Content and Build Relationships (Dosh Dosh): The concept of sharing on StumbleUpon is obvious and it’s built-in for a reason. However, there’s a lot more to Stumbling when you share. There’s an aspect of relationship-building.
• StumbleUpon Phenomenon: An In-Depth Look at a Social Networking Giant (Search Engine Journal): Sujan Patel writes a short but sweet post (though not as “in-depth” as I expected) on StumbleUpon and some tools you can use to improve the user experience.
• Writing for StumbleUpon: High Impact Content “Above the Scroll” in Four Easy Steps (Copyblogger): Or in our terms, it’s “above the fold.” And that’s really what’s important. Muhammad Saleem explains how titles, visual cues, a strong opening, and substance helps boost your visits through StumbleUpon.
• Run a StumbleUpon Advertising Campaign for Your Blog (Problogger): I’m noticing that a lot more people are running advertising campaigns for their blogs since this article came out. Perhaps Darren’s advice resonated with his readers?
• 65 Must Read StumbleUpon Articles (Newest on the Net): At first, I didn’t intend to link to link posts in my yearly recap, but if you really wanted more information on SU, Fred has accumulated some 65 posts on StumbeUpon and linked it to his blog. I can tell you that finding these articles isn’t easy!

LinkedIn

• Effective Marketing on LinkedIn: Helen talks about how to build your network and make your brand successful on LinkedIn.
• 8 Things You Can Do to Get Work Through LinkedIn (Freelance Switch): Collis Ta’eed talks about how recommendations and networking will get you more clients. (Plug: They also recently came out with an awesome eBook on how to become a rockstar freelancer – aff)

Twitter

• Newbies Guide to Twitter (Chris Brogan): Haven’t used Twitter yet? Maybe you should get started, but if you’re inundated with all the hype about Twitter, sit down, relax, and read this beginner’s guide.
• The Big Juicy Twitter Guide (Caroline Middlebrook): Want more Twitter goodness? Caroline has a 7-part series on how Twitter has worked as a successful networking and productivity tool.

Mixx

• Top 10 Blog Posts about Mixx in 2007 (Bill Hartzer): Bill talks about the best posts that highlight the up-and-coming social news network, Mixx.
• What a Mixx Up: Interview with Mixx Founder Chris McGill (Collective Thoughts): Brian Wallace interviews Chris McGill to learn about the goals of the promising social news network.
• How Mixx Changed My Perception of Social Media (The Trukstop): Greg Davies discusses why Mixx is a better social site than any others he’s used — and he provides compelling reasons to try Mixx.

del.icio.us

• Become a del.icio.us Power User (Web Worker Daily): Not many people talk about using del.icio.us for its social media potential, but it’s a good tool for social bookmarking and should be utilized.

Sphinn

• Top 10 Blog Posts about Sphinn in 2007 (Bill Hartzer): Like with Mixx, Bill takes the best articles about Sphinn and shares them with his readers.
• Sphinn: In Depth Traffic Analysis and Advice (Blogging Fingers): Matt Jones takes a look at Sphinn in its early beta stages and gives a lot of interesting feedback.
• Introducing the Sphinn Effect (Small Busines SEM): Matt is in love with Sphinn, and he explains why.
• Sphinn: The Social News Site Every Search Marketer Should Be Using (SEOmoz): Rand lists 10 compelling reasons to join Sphinn.

Social Media and Social Media Marketing

• Social Media Marketing in a Nutshell (Dosh Dosh): Maki introduces SMM and explains why it’s important.
• The Social Networking Guide for Newbies (Fast Company): Social networking is much like networking in the real world. The difference is that it’s virtual.
• 27 Website Promotion Sources that Have Nothing to do With Google or SEO (eMoms at Home): In other words, Wendy Piersall explains that your online marketing strategy is all about internet marketing and a whole lot of social media.
• How to Influence Powerful Social Media Users for Traffic and Attention (Dosh Dosh): How do you influence the influencers? Mainly, through networking.
• A Visual Tour Through the Basics of Social Media Marketing (SEOmoz): Still not involved much in SMM? Rand Fishkin uses pretty pictures to explain the importance of social media marketing and how you can apply it to get better traffic, more conversions, brand awareness, and more.
• 8 Simple Rules for Social Media Marketing in Business to Business Markets (Stuntdubl): Todd talks about how you can make social media marketing work well in the B2B world, but you can certainly extend his post to just about any sort of SMM.
• 11 Guidelines to Social Media Success (Search Engine Watch): Eric Enge presents his 11 takeaways from SMX Social Media.
• Why Social Media Belongs in Your Internet Marketing Campaign (Bruce Clay): The Lisa goes through three successful examples of good social media applications and illustrates why they grabbed her attention. By the way, if you want your attention to be grabbed every time, make sure you read The Lisa’s Friday Recap posts.
• The Social Media Manual (Search Engine Land): Guest writer Muhammad Saleem teaches his social media know-how and provides lessons from mistakes in the social media world.
• 7 Benefits to Engaging in Social Media Marketing (Search Engine People): Jeff Quipp explains why an SMM strategy is important for any business.
• Are You a Social Media Idiot? (Bruce Clay): Lisa says that it’s all about building brand equity, so participation (and Twitter spam) is key.
• Ignore the Social Media Scoreboard (Instigator Blog): Ben Yoskovitz says that you need to leverage friendships to build brand, reputation, trust, and to discover new opportunities.
• A Comprehensive Guide to Going Viral on Digg (Part 1) and A Comprehensive Guide to Going Viral on Digg (Part 2) (SEOmoz): Daniel Tynski’s guest posts on SEOmoz are must-reads if you’re considering some sort of viral marketing campaign, even if it doesn’t include Digg.
• The Importance of Social Media Marketing: Why You Should Learn and Master It (Dosh Dosh): Maki details why social media marketing is an important strategy and explains how it can be used.
• What Urban Legends Can Teach Us About Social Media Marketing (Dan Zarrella): Dan talks about the application of urban legends and how it is useful to incorporate these thoughts into a social media strategy.
• Marketing is Not Social Media/Social Media is Not Marketing (Chris Brogan): Chris Brogan makes a clear statement when he says that marketing is a discipline and social media are tools.
• Stop Steampunk SEO, Start Being Friendly to Your Peers (Collective Thoughts): The future is here and it’s social, Tad Chef explains.
• The Sexy Girls of Tech and Politics: The Unbeatable Trio (NxE): Find what the community likes and pander to them for the best kind of traffic exposure on social sites.
• What are Social Media Marketing and Social Media Optimization? (ViperChill): Eighteen-year-old Glen Alsopp, who just scored an incredible gig as a director of social media at a firm in South Africa, talks about the rules for on-site and off-site optimization in your social media efforts.
• 7 Ways to Own Social Media Before it Owns You (Collective Thoughts): Brian Wallace offers tips on avoiding social media overload.
• 10 Commandments of Social Media Marketing (Site Visibility): Kelvin Newman makes social media rules relate to olden times — literally. For example, Rule #1 is “Thou Shalt Be Honest.”
• A Beginner’s Guide to Social News Websites (Dosh Dosh): Maki presents an actionable post about how to interact with and choose social news websites.
• The Secret to Social Media Success (Chris Garrett): According to Chris, it’s a popularity contest, so make those friends and network above all else.
• The 10-Minute Daily Guide to Building Your Social Media Profile (Instigator Blog): With so many social networks out there, how do you pay attention to all of them? Ben lays it out in a guide that should only take 10 minutes a day.
• Social Search and Why We Should Care (10e20): I think that Chris Sherman is a genius. In this webcast that I transcribed, Chris talks about the evolution of social search and its challenges.
• Social Media Marketing Tactics (SEOmoz): Jane Copand, the Web 2.0 guru, shows how to leverage Web 2.0 sites to market your brand and control your message.
• Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship (Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication): This is a scholarly article into social networking in case you wanted a firmer grasp about how it’s being studied in the academic sphere.
• How to Encourage Clients to Engage in Social Media (Bruce Clay): The reason why many people aren’t engaged in social media is because they have fears and reservations. Lisa attempts to quell those concerns.
• Viral Marketing is NOT the Same as Word of Mouth (Search Engine Guide): Jennifer Laycock differentiates between WOMM and Viral Marketing.
• Why Networking Socially Beats Social Networking Every Time (Social Media Explorer): Jason Falls explains that it’s not just about social networking; instead, networking with the influencers makes all the difference.
• Social Media: Under the Microscope (SiteLogic): Matt Bailey compares the traffic spikes to conversions.
• The Future of Communications: A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing (PR 2.0): Brian Solis makes a pretty compelling argument about how we’re engaged in a dialog and how social media has brought new influencers to town.
• The Value of Social Media Traffic (Frontpage Bids): Once you get that social media traffic, how do you take advantage of it?

General Internet Marketing

• What Internet Marketers Can Learn from a Teenage Boy Asking a Girl to Prom (Shoemoney): Guest blogger Brennan Hayde equates that prom date struggle to your internet marketing strategy.
• 10 Secrets of Successful Online Community (Influential Marketing): Point #2 on Rohit Bharghava’s list is a theme that is pervasive on this blog: “listen to your users.”
• Ten Web Strategy Blog Posts I Wish You’d Read (Web Strategist): Jeremiah Owyang links to his frequently-discussed blog posts on marketing and web strategy, especially as it relates to corporations.
• Internet Marketing Mindmap (SEOBook): Launched in September, this mindmap covers what Aaron calls “Internet Marketing Made Easy.”
• All I Really Need to Know About (Search) Marketing I Learned in Kindergarten (Search Engine Land): We learn about the basics of marketing from an early age, but how exactly are they applied to (search) marketing? Jon Miller tells you.
• 17 Guerrilla Marketing Ideas for Your Website (DailyBits): What’s your marketing strategy? If there are any freebies involved, don’t forget me.
• (Your Stories Never Go Popular Because) Your Personal Marketing Plan Sucks (Wolf Howl): Michael Gray explains the elements that define a personal marketing plan problem and how to resolve them.
• Measuring Search Success 2007 (10e20): Another excellent webcast with Chris Sherman of Third Door Media: it’s all about conversions, baby.
• The Many Forms of Web Marketing for the (2007) Search Strategist (Web Strategist): Jeremiah alludes to many tools and tactics for corporate web strategy.
• 23 Surefire Small-Business Marketing Tips for 2008 (PlanetC1.com): Michael Dorausch talks about internal and external marketing efforts that you should apply next year.
• 10 New Years Resolutions for an Internet Marketer (Search Commander): Scott Hendison is already preparing for 2008 with some resolutions that will hopefully make marketers more productive in the upcoming year.

Viral Strategies

• The Link Baiting Playbook: Hooks Revisited (Stuntdubl): Todd looks at the variety of link baiting hooks (news, controversy, attacks, resources, humor, ego, and incentive) and explains their pros and cons.
• Andy Hagans’ Ultimate Guide to Link Baiting and Social Media Marketing (Tropical SEO): Andy lays it all out here. Make sure your article has the right hook, has a kick-ass headline, is presented properly for a social media crowd, and ensure that you target the right people to give your story a push.
• The Golden Rules of Linkbaiting (Smashing Magazine): The wonderful guys at Smashing Magazine take quotes from a variety of link baiting articles and make a compelling argument as to why link baiting works.
• Under the Microscope: Six Strategies for Building Viral Content (Skelliewag): Skellie talks about what makes viral articles alluring.
• 12 Examples of Viral Content and What We Can Learn from Them (Skelliewag): Skellie goes further to examine some successful linkbait pieces and why they were indeed notewrothy.
• 10 Brilliant Examples of LinkBait (WebGeek): Scott Allen shows how tools are great linkbait.
• Brainstorming Linkbait: A Four-Step Approach (SEOmoz): Want to create a linkbait piece? Scott Willoughby says that you can be successful if you brainstorm every idea. Don’t be afraid to write anything and everything down. Seriously.
• Linkbait Articles (Cornwall SEO): Lyndon takes his favorite linkbait articles and puts them in a single post for our reading pleasure.
• How to Make Viral Linkbaits Work: Four Characteristics for Success (Dosh Dosh): What makes viral linkbait? Maki takes us through four elements and then goes through a case study.
• The 7 Secrets of Viral Content (Daily Blog Tips): So, you have a great viral idea. Now what? Here’s how you should present it.
• Anatomy of a Viral Sensation (Pronet Advertising): This post by David Chen explores how content can be a viral success.
• Calling it Linkbait Doesn’t Make You Less of a Jerk (Bruce Clay): If you’re aiming to profit off of tragedy or unfortunate situations, it’s really bad for your reputation, says my BFF Lisa Barone. Don’t capitalize on someone else’s suffering.
• SES Interviews: Matt Inman on Linkbaiting (Search Marketing Standard): Joe Whyte interviews Matt Inman on his amazing linkbait strategies. Did I ever mention that I heart Matt?

Link Resources

• Ultimate Guide to Building the Perfect Link (Small Business SEM): Matt McGee talks about who you should look for links from and why.
• Perspectives on Buying Links (Stuntdubl): Todd explains that you should justify the purchase of your links from an SEO, engineer, or visitor standpoint.
• Internal Link Architecture Made Easy (SEOBook): Aaron provides tips on how you can optimize your internal link structure.
• How do You Measure a Link? (SEOmoz): Rand talks about the elements that determine a link’s value.
• Link Value Factors (Wiep.net): Wiep Knol asked a bunch of experts in the Internet Marketing sphere what they thought were the most important elements of links. This is one of the best articles of the year.
• Five Link Development Experts: A Group Interview (Sugarrae): Rae interviews Rand Fishkin, Todd Malicoat, Roger Montti, Eric Ward, (and herself), and provides a really cool interview about link development.
• Michael Gray Interview: Advanced Link Strategies (Link Juicy): Michael talks about more advanced link building (and baiting) tactics.
• Hansel and Gretel Link Building (Skelliewag): Skellie applies the old children’s tale to link building. Clever!
• Link Buying Guide: Directories, Ads, and Reviews (Search Engine Journal): Need to buy links? Loren Baker vouches for directories and brokerage services to get the job done.
• Linking Gotchas Even the Pros Make (Andy Beard): Andy debunks a ton of articles and explains his reasoning. Pretty daring and altogether a wonderful read.
• 11 Guidelines for Getting Authoritative Links (Search Engine Watch): Eric Enge explains that it takes time and patience to get what you’re looking for.
• Links Links Links (Top Rank Blog): They aren’t as conventional, but Lee Odden explains that some of the most traditional ways to build links still work.
• How to Achieve Higher Rankings and Stay out of Google Hell via Optimized Internal Linking (Jim Boykin): Jim explains that by optimizing your internal linking strategy, you can avoid the supplemental index.
• Factors of a Quality Web Directory (Shimon Sandler): What makes the right web directory? Check the factors that need to be considered.
• The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Link Builders (Search Engine Land): If you plan on doing link building yourself, you need to possess these seven traits, says Debra Mastaler
• Interview of Debra Mastaler, the Link Guru (SEOBook): Apparently, Deb is so busy building links that it was nearly impossible for her to answer this interview questionnaire, but she finally pulled through!
• 17 Creative Link Building Ideas (Search Engine Journal): If you felt that you were still running dry with all the posts I’ve linked here, here are 17 more ideas that can get you some more links.
• Link Building as Relationship Building – A Great Example (Search Engine Guide): Jennifer explains that building relationships resonate well when building links and how communication is important.
• Creating Authority and Link Development (Martinibuster): Roger Montti says that differentiating your site is the key to creating authority and building links.
• Online Publicity and Link Building in 2007 (10e20): This is a webcast I transcribed earlier this year that featured esteemed link builder Eric Ward.
• What Exactly Qualifies as a Quality Link? (Jennifer Slegg): Start asking yourself these questions and mark off which ones apply to the links you’re seeking.

Blogging: General

• Blog Setup: 40 Practical Tips (Daily Blog Tips): Starting a blog? This article covers five blogging topics: WordPress setup, design, validation, plugins, and analytics.
• How to Choose the Right Blog Niche: A Simple Three-Step Method (Dosh Dosh): The brilliant Maki helps you get started in blogging if you haven’t started yet. It’s not too late!
• 5 Items Your Blog Sidebar Must Have (Blogging Tips): Chris Garrett explains that you need to add prominent features to your blog’s sidebar to visibility.
• How to Improve Blogs in 4 Easy Steps (Social Media Explorer): Jason Falls talks about how content is king, and taken with other advice on this page, he’s certainly right.
• Beginner’s Guide to Setting Up a First Blog Site (Lonely Marketer): Patrick Schaber provides an informative basic list for beginners who are about to embark on the blogging journey.
• Wait! Write Before You Launch (Blogging Experiment): It’s unwise to launch your blog with only a few posts. Build content first and then start marketing your blog.
• To Niche or Not to Niche: Top Bloggers Tell All (Jonathan Fields): Jonathan asked several bloggers, myself included, if it’s a better idea to focus your blog on one topic area or to be a little more general. What do you think is the answer to this question?
• The Definitive Guide to Blogging – 1st Edition (Sponsored Reviews): Jarrod Hunt lists over 130 resources for building, monetizing, and customizing your blog.
• 101 Tips I Learned from Blogging (Etienne Teo): Blogging is rewarding and a learning experience for all. Etienne shares her 101 lessons with her readers.
• Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers from Original Blogger Jorn Barger (Wired): The guy who coined the term “weblog” dispenses blog advice for newbies in this Wired article.
• Answer My 30 Questions and Then I’ll Take You Seriously (Alister Cameron): Alister Cameron provides questionnaire that lets you audit your blog and see if you’re really in need of consulting services.
• Blog Metrics: Six Recommendations for Measuring Your Success (Occam’s Razor): Web analytics wizard Avinash Kaushik shares ways to see how you’re successful in your blogging efforts. This prompted Joost de Valk to write an awesome WordPress Blog Metrics plugin.
• 10 Articles All Bloggers Should Read (At Least Once) (Performancing): Just in case the list on this blog doesn’t suffice, here are 10 more blogging articles. You can also subscribe to the hundreds of blogs about blogging too (or you can come back here in 2008).
• Blog for an Audience… Even if You Have None (Blog Herald): One of my favorite bloggers, Jason aka Webomatica, talks about how you should perceive your blog as having a huge audience — even if you don’t — so that every action matters.
• 10 More Blogging Tips from a Novice Blogger (Occam’s Razor): I don’t consider Avinash Kaushik a novice blogger, and you don’t have to follow these rules to a tee, but it is solid advice.
• Your Fellow Blogger is Not a Competitor (Dosh Dosh): You’re not competing against any bloggers. If anything, you can use the information that blogger teaches you and absorb more information to better your skillset. In the end, however, your fellow blogger is a person you can network with.
• Tips for Using Images in Blogs (Blogoscoped): Images are eye candy, but use them well and you will reap the benefits.
• I Live in the Blogosphere (SEO 2.0): Mark Dykeman’s guest post makes a bold statement: “The blogosphere is my communication medium and my blogs are transmitters.”
• WordPress Desktop Blogging: 5 Tools Reviewed (CenterNetworks): So, after reading all these articles, you’re going to use WordPress? Good choice. Now check out the options you have for desktop publishing on WordPress, or do what I do and just stick to the web interface.

Blogging: Inspiration

• 66 Successful Bloggers and What They Can Teach You (TheBizOfKnowledge): Bill Belew links to 66 different blogs and explains that each blogger brings a unique voice to the table.
• Your Secret Blogging Weapon is You (Cornwall SEO): Everyone can start a blog, but which blogs are the more outstanding of the bunch? The ones where your personality shines.
• Discover Hundreds of Post Ideas for Your Blog with Mind Mapping (Problogger): If you’ve stumbled on writer’s block, take out a pen and paper and start mind mapping – that is, get a theme and start building up other related ideas by association.
• The 5 Immutable Laws of Persuasive Blogging (Copyblogger): Brian Clark is my favorite copywriter and proves it by listing 5 laws of persuasive blogging. What elements make blogs successful?
• 4 Reasons to Write on the Weekend and 4 Posts to Do it With (Muhammad Saleem): Don’t call it writer’s block now.
• 101 Great Posting Ideas that Will Make Your Blog Sizzle (I Help You Blog): Philip Liu put a ton of effort into this post and then he disappeared from the blogosphere. I miss you, man!
• 101 Blog Posting Ideas (SEO 2.0): Just in case Philip’s ist wasn’t enough, Tad has another 101 ideas.
• 23 Great Ideas for Blog Posts (Pat B. Doyle): In case the previous 202 ideas weren’t enough, Pat gives you another 23.
• 37 Viral Post Ideas You Can Use Today (Skelliewag): Out of ideas? Here are some viral blog posts to start writing right now.
• 100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write (Chris Brogan): This post should keep you devoid of writer’s block until at least 2009…
• 101 Essential Blogging Skills (Skelliewag): You need not possess all 101, but they certainly help.
• Top 20 Tips for Beginner Bloggers (How to Build a Website): Not everyone follows all these tips, so you can get a lot of inspiration from these.

Blogging: Promotion

• Hare Krishnas Reveal the Secret to Massive Link Love and Mega Sales (Jonathan Fields): Give and you shall receive. Jon makes a brilliant analogy to how when Hare Krishnas give you a flower, they subconsciously are programming your mind to give them a donation. Likewise, in blogging, give something before requesting anything. The more you give, the more rewards you reap.
• How I Increased My Traffic by 11259.7% in 3 Months in 10 Easy Steps (SEO 2.0): You want traffic? You have to work for it. Fortunately, Tad lays out the guidelines that he followed to give his site more visibility, so all you need to do is implement the strategies.
• Do You Have a Blog Commenting Strategy? (Caroline Middlebrook): Commenting on blogs has helped Caroline grab others’ attention.
• The Power of Search: Driving Traffic to Your Blog (Vanessa Fox): Vanessa spoke at BlogHer this past year (I’m so jealous) and applies three concepts (relevance, discoverability, and crawlability, for a total of four posts!) to making blogs more heavily trafficked in the search engines. Maybe next year, I’ll steal her presentation…
• Strike Up a Conversation Today for a Relationship Tomorrow (Blogging Experiment): Ben Cook talks about the steps he’s taken to score some pretty awesome guest blogging stints.
• How to Get Darren Rowse to Read Your Blog (Cornwall SEO): Want to get someone’s attention? Write about them. (Hint: I have an alert for both “techipedia” and for “Tamar Weinberg”. I notice that Robert Scoble adds me to his link blog when I write about him too. Hi Robert!)
• Pattern Your Audience: How Editorial Calendars Increase Your Readership (Dosh Dosh): Make your readers expect to hear from you, so set up an editorial calendar to know when to visit your site next.
• Five Ways to Attract More Comments (Blogging Experiment): Need more comments on your blog? Ben shows five ways to compel more people to participate.
• How to ACTUALLY Get Blog Comments (Snowboardjohn): John talks about advanced concepts that will not just cause people to comment — they will provoke them to comment.
• Create 50000 Links in 11 Weeks (Blogstorm): Patrick Altoft talks about his blog marketing strategy and how it worked for him.
• Blogging is About Writing (Problogger): Guest writer Lorelle VanFossen lists ways to get your blog noticed: writing matters.
• 99 Ways to Promote Your Blog for Free (Vandelay Design): If you think you’ve run out of ideas to promote your blog, you’re probably wrong.
• 19 Strategies to Help Turn New Visitors into Loyal Readers (Skelliewag): How do you maintain a new reader? There are at least 19 ways!
• 20 Essential Blog Directories to Submit Your Blog To (Search Engine Journal): As Loren once said, BLOG = Better Listings on Google. That said, submit your blog to many directories to get maximum visibility.
• 15 Ways to Become an Influential Blogger (NxE): If you are aiming to become a blogging celebrity, take heed to these 15 tips and apply them to your blogging right away.
• 35 Guaranteed Ways to Increase Your RSS Subscribers (Newest on the Net): Newcomer Fred Peters talks about how he increases his RSS subscriber count. Many of these tips should be implemented into any blogging strategy!

Content Generation

• 11 Unique Content Sources in Saturated Markets (SEOBook): What do you do if you’re in a competitive area and want to write something original? Aaron Wall answers the question.
• 10 Helpful Hints for Creating Strong Web Site Content (10e20): Jake over at 10e20 talks about how you can pump out some great articles if you research, hire experts, do competitive research, and focus on alternate languages, among other excellent tips.
• The 4 Essential Elements of an About Me Page (Quick Sprout): Neil explains that it’s important for your about page to have an image, a statement about yourself, an expressed willingness to help others, and contact information.
• How to Use the Simple Power of Contrast to Become More Persuasive (Copyblogger): Using analogies, Brian Clark examines “contrast” and explains how you can change perceptions to get people to proceed with a purchase.
• Using Google to Target Bloggers & the Mainstream Media with Search Queries (SEOBook): Aaron Wall presents some excellent content-generation ideas.
• How to Avoid Fool’s Gold and Create Value-Packed Content (Skelliewag): Brilliant writer Skellie talks about how you can make every piece of content more valuable.
• 25 Headline Formulas that Have Plagued and Blessed Web 2.0 (Skelliewag): Still need a good headline? Here are some creative angles you can take.
• Are You Using the Right Content Development Strategy for Your Website? (Dosh Dosh): How do you intend to deliver high-impact that will build up readership quickly? Read Maki’s guide.

Reputation Management

• Reputation Management Emancipation Proclamation: 10 Ways to “Own” Yourself Online (Stuntdubl): How do you build your personal brand? Todd details 10 great tips, including registering your name on every social network, getting interviews, and speaking at industry events.
• Buzz Monitoring: 26 Free Tools You Must Have (Marketing Pilgrim): Andy Beal talks about the 26 tools that help you monitor your reputation online. He’s also coming out with a book in February entitled Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online which will give away all his trade secrets.
• Reputation Management You May Be Missing (Vanessa Fox): Using an obscure search engine gave Vanessa incentive to write a post about how utilizing any profiles (even less-trafficked ones) can till help manage your reputation online.
• Full Blown Reputation Management Campaign (Shimon Sandler): Need to bury bad press? Shimon outlines what your campaign should offer should you offer reputation management services.
• Five Ways Negative Reviews Help Your Online Reputation (Andy Beal): A positive reputation comes from embracing negative reviews.
• The Definitive Guide to Online Reputation Management (Scoreboard Media): Brian Provost gives strategies for owning the first page of the search results.
• 31 Places to Monitor Your Reputation Online (Search Marketing Gurus): Explore every nook and cranny to get the most out of your reputation management campaign.
• 10 Ways to Fix a Google Reputation Management Nightmare (Marketing Pilgrim): What’s the best content to fill up page 1 of the search results? Ask Andy Beal, or just read this post.
• Beware: Your Digital Footprint is Your Resume (Search Engine People): Jeff Quipp talks about how everything you do can be traced back to you.
• PR Disasters Lurk in Web 2.0 Chicanery (RogerD’s Notebook): If you’re going to go into reputation management, you better understand the Internet. Bad reputation management is noticeable.
• Using Social Media to Help Manage Online Reputation (SearchRank): David Wallace illustrates how reputation management works and explains how engagement in social media can help change perceptions.
• DIY Reputation Management (CNet): Stephan Spencer talks about how to do reputation management right in a short easy-to-read list.
• Reputation Management and Search: Avoiding Chunnel Vision (RB Digital Rodeo): Sure, reputation management is a good step in the right direction, but the reality is that your search engine rankings are usually not where the problem lies.

Video Articles

• How to be a Star in a YouTube World (Wall Street Journal): A news article from the Wall Street Journal about how consistency, finding the right niche, early adoption, networking, and professionalism will make you a popular YouTube star.
• The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos (TechCrunch): This controversial but brilliant article provides many insights into how some marketing firms make their videos really stand out above the rest.
• Definitive List of Video Aggregator Sites (SEO Space): There are a lot of video sites beyond YouTube. Jody Nimetz lists them out for you.
• Ultimate Video Optimization Resources (Web Analytics World): Manoj Jasra provides a list of more articles that will help you in your video optimization efforts.
• Why Online Video is Good for Your Corporate Executives and How to Deploy (Web Strategist): Jeremiah Owyang explains how videos are time efficient, allows executives to talk directly to people, and work well in a corporate strategy. What comes to mind: David Neeleman’s JetBlue apology.

Business

• 5 Ways an SEO a Consultant Can Make More Money (that have nothing to do with Google) (Tropical SEO): I’m starting to see the value of this!
• 8 Simple Steps to Build Traffic for Your Internet Startup (Scoreboard Media): Brian Provost explains how you can create an audience for your product and gain the necessary exposure for fame.
• Breaking Up with Bad Clients: It’s Not You, It’s … Me (Stuntdubl): If your clients aren’t profitable and raise your stress levels, perhaps it’s time to cease the relationship. But how do you do that?
• 16 Tips to Successful Business on the Web (Stuntdubl): Todd Malicoat talks about how he’s successful at his business. Some tips: never be afraid to say no, work with successful people, execute, and overdeliver.
• Your Personal Viral Marketing Plan (Eradicate Perplexity): What are the pros and cons of working for yourself? Scott Orth outlines the positives and negatives of both approaches.
• 20 Work-Life Balance Tips for the Overworked Entrepreneur (Entrepreneur): If you didn’t let Scott Orth’s cons bug you and decided to take the freelancing route, how do you make time for yourself? (Answer: You certainly wouldn’t be writing a blog post about the Internet Marketing Best Posts of 2007 for 10 hours straight on a holiday weekend!)
• Online Marketing 10 Tips (DaveN): Dan Horton shares his thoughts on how to build a firm and reputable marketing strategy.
• How a Small Winery Found Internet Fame (CNN Money): Two words: blogger outreach.
• 9 Random Tips on Becoming a Successful Online Marketer (Shoemoney): Jeremy writes what’s been on his mind.
• What Separates Search Marketing Novices from Experts (SEOmoz): What are the mistakes that differentiates the newbies from experts in the search marketing field?
• 13 Ways to Promote Your Local Business for Free (Wolf-Howl): This doesn’t quite fit under the “Business” category that I was thinking of, but Michael’s post is surely a gem!
• What My Preschooler Can Teach You About Online Success (Social Desire): In a very clever comparison, Shana Albert equates lessons from preschool to business.
• Working on the Periphery: How to Make Any Website You’ll Ever Create a Success (Dosh Dosh): Maki emphasizes the importance of relationships to contribute to the growth of your website or business.
• How to Find the Right Search Marketing Partner (10e20): Chris Sherman speaks at a Search Marketing Now webcast about the factors to consider when choosing a search marketing partner.

Search Engine Optimization

• Why the SEO Folks are Mad at You, Jason (Search Engine Land): Danny defends SEO — again.
• Search Ranking Factors v2 (SEOmoz): Rand Fishkin asked a bunch of experts about what determines search rankings and published the new findings in April.
• The Bloggers Guide to SEO (SEOBook): Aaron and Giovanna have created a great in-depth guide on how bloggers can ensure that their posts are ranked well within the search engine results. Unlike their eBook (aff) which is worth every penny, the guide is free.
• How to SEO Your Site in Less than 60 Minutes (Small Business SEM): Matt McGee acknowledges that you need to take more than 60 minutes to SEO your site effectively, but if you were really in such a time crunch, you might as well use his guide as a starting point.
• Example of SEO Strategy Document (Shimon Sandler): What should you present your clients when you’re offering services in SEO? Shimon literally gave away his trade secret with this one.
• The SEO Playbook (Stuntdubl): Todd calls this “the advanced beginner’s guide” and goes through the techniques that get you top rankings. He also includes a whole lot of additional links for reference which makes this blog post extremely comprehensive.
• Search Engine Optimization Warfare (Stuntdubl): Todd calls this post “the competitive webmaster’s guide to understanding the dynamics of top rankings.” I’ll leave you to read the rest.
• Top SEO Tips (SEO Refugee Forums): GaryTheScubaGuy lists his 12 most important SEO factors.
• What Makes SEO and SEM So Damn Hard (SEOmoz): Marketers face a lot of obstacles in the SEO and SEM sphere and it’s a difficult task. What are the challenges? Rand explains all.
• The Lowdown on Press Release Optimization (Top Rank Blog): Lee Odden knows a lot more about press releases than I do, and he talks about what you can to do optimize those PRs.
• Ultimate Local Search Optimization Resources (Web Analytics World): Manoj Jasra aggregates a bunch of websites and provides resources which should help anyone in the area of local optimization.
• But is it Spam? (SEOBook): Aaron shows through examples that we should come up with the correct search marketing strategy.
• WordPress SEO Masterclass for Competitive Niches (Andy Beard): Is your blog niche competitive enough that you feel that you can’t rank for these terms? Take apart your WordPress theme and make it search-friendly. Awesome.
• A Complete Glossary of Essential SEO Jargon (SEOmoz): For newcomers in the SEO sphere, there are a ton of acronyms and terms that you should get acquainted with.
• 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques (Search Engine Land): Matt McGee explains that these are the things you should do whether you’re hiring an SEO firm or doing SEO yourself.
• Keyword Inspiration: Aaron Wall Shares His Secrets (WordTracker Blog): Where does Aaron Wall get his ideas for the ideal keywords? Now you know!
• SEO Expert Quiz (SEOmoz): Are you an SEO expert? Launched earlier this year, the SEOmoz quiz will let you know how literate you are in the world of SEO.
• Why the PageRank Toolbar is Killing the SEO Industry (Search Engine Roundtable): Barry Schwartz argues that if PageRank were removed, then the whole landscape of SEO would change.
• 7 Steps to Get Your New Site Indexed in 24 Hours (Solo SEO): From my experience, it was all about WordPress, but Michael Jensen gives more realistic steps in the absence of the blogging platform.
• 55 SEO Interview Questions (All Things SEM): Marios Alexandrou has been interviewing for quite some time. What questions does he ask during the interview process and what should you also ask?

Search Engine Stuff

• Google 2.0: Google Universal Search (Search Engine Land): Danny Sullivan explains the ramifications of the universal search and what it means for you.
• The Illustrated Guide to Duplicate Content on Search Engines (SEOmoz): In this article about duplicate content and many others, you’ll quickly learn that Rand Fishkin is an artist.
• What is Google PageRank? A Guide for Searchers and Webmasters (Search Engine Land): Danny talks about the green bar and explains the various applications for SEOs and searchers. This in-depth article is the best I’ve seen on PageRank.
• How to Handle a Google Penalty (SEOmoz): Rand talks to Matt Cutts about a penalty on a real estate website and then illustrates his findings in a flowchart.
• The Ultimate Guide to Advanced Searching within Google, Yahoo, and MSN (HybridSEM): This is the search operators cheat sheet that you’ve been waiting for.
• Restricting the (Google) Search Space (Blogoscoped): Philipp explains that you can get desired results simply by performing certain queries with specific operators.
• Five Things You Didn’t Know About Google’s Search (Matt Cutts): Matt gives away secrets in this blog post… okay, maybe not, but it’s an interesting read nevertheless.

Web Development

• Efficient Web Design & Development: Hacks to Save Time and Money (SEOBook): Need a new website on the cheap? Aaron walks through the steps you should take, from domain purchase to design to content.
• 50 Common Web Design Mistakes (Design Refugee): Before your site goes live, make sure you check every item off of this checklist and address these concerns.
• Thirty Free Image Resources on the Web (About): Wendy Boswell, searcher extraordinare, shares her top 30 sites for finding free images for your blog and other websites.
• 100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images (Virtual Hosting): In case 30 wasn’t enough, here are others that are driven by the community, allow new users, and are small but still very useful.
• Difference Between a Website and a Blog (Social Desire): What differentiates websites and blogs? Look at Shana’s chart.
• 8 Web Design Tactics to Help You When You’re Stuck (SEOmoz): My favorite West Coast guy is a brilliant designer (I’ll save the gushing for later) but writes an amazing post on how to get out of designer’s block.
• 404 Funnies: Making “Not Found” Work for You (CNet): Stephan Spencer says that creative 404 pages show a sense of humor. For more 404 pages, check out the Smashing Magazine collections.

Search Marketing Tools

• Analytics on the Cheap: Six Free Stats Packages for the Startup or Small Business Owner (10e20): Can’t afford an expensive analytics package? There are plenty that are free, and here are six that I personally reviewed.
• A Beginner’s SEO Toolbox (Small Business SEM): Matt McGee shares his favorite plugins and tools for doing SEO.
• 10 Ways to Become a More Efficient Webmaster (Lee Dodd): Lee Dodd outlines 10 tools and explains how they help at improving your webmastering skills.
• Five Free “Advanced” Web Analytics Examples (Occam’s Razor): Avinash shows how you can get some great statistics about your website by using tools that are totally free.
• Bookmarklets for the Web 2.0 Jedi Master (MicroPersuasion): Steve Rubel knows his bookmarklets.
• 6 Web Tools that You Can’t Live Without (Square Oak): Brendan talks about some lesser known tools that are quite helpful for search research and for getting things done.

Paid Search

• Re-Upping Your Google AdWords Certification (Stuntdubl): Getting certified? Again? Don’t review the entire course guides once more. Just check Todd’s notes.
• 31 Killer Writing AdWords Ads Tips (GoogleLady): The best-written ads can give you higher CTR and thus conversions. What’s stopping you from trying these?
• Using Paid Search? Here’s How to Maximize the Impact of Your Ads (10e20): Chris Sherman speaks about the importance of paid search in yet another webcast that I transcribed.
• Example of a PPC Strategy Document (Shimon Sandler): If you’re offering PPC services to a client, here’s a strategy document template to use.
• PPC Success in Five Steps (ISEdb): It’s all in your keywords, ads, landing pages, organization, and analysis, but there’s more to the article than what I just wrote!
• How to Turn Around an Unprofitable PPC Campaign (SiteProNews): Kalena Jordan highlights mistakes people make in their PPC campaigns and how to remedy them.
• Five Common Paid Search Mistakes that Can Sink Your Campaign (Search Engine Guide): Jennifer Laycock describes the five most common pitfalls and how to solve them.
• Starting From Scratch: A Paid Search Primer (RKG): If it’s your first time in paid search, this is a good guide to get started.
• Optimizing the Mix of Paid and Organic Listings (10e20): Is it good enough to simply be ranked #1 in the organic listings? No, complementing that with paid listings can boost your brand, according to Chris Sherman.
• How to Lower Your AdWords Minimum Bid (eWhisper): Brad Geddes gives you a strategy you’re hopefully taking advantage of if you’re using paid search.
• Website Conversation Rate 101 (Invesp Blog): To increase your conversion rate, you need to invest time and energy. Khalid presents an 8-step tutorial.

Recommended Books

• 5 Books All Search Marketers Should Read (SEOmoz): Except John Battelle’s book, I don’t own the listed books.
• 5 More Books Search Marketers Should Read (SEOmoz): Here are 5 more books to keep your marketing learn on.
• Books that have Changed My Business (Shoemoney): Jeremy is an audiobook type, but now I have to obtain the audiobooks since I have no time to read with all this writing I’m doing. Summary of this section: I need to get reading (or listening) right away!

Affiliate Sites: My disclaimer here is that I’m not at all too familiar with this area, but I think these articles will certainly get me started when I make the time!

• How to Build an Affiliate Site You Can Sell for $1M (Tropical SEO): Andy Hagans talks about how time, effort, and a defensible website can give you a good push.
• How to Survive the Affiliate Revolution (Sugarrae): Rae explains that you need to find the right domains that have the right keywords and that unique content really does sell. Engaging the community and building a well-designed website are also important elements.

Domaining: Another disclaimer – I’m also not really involved in the domainer’s sphere yet, but these are really good reads.

• Master of My Domaining: 10 Things I’ve Learned About Domaining Since I’ve Jumped in the Pool (Scoreboard Media): Once Brian Provost took domaining seriously, he had lessons to share for those of us who haven’t. I’ll keep these in mind.
• Interview of Frank Schilling, the World Famous Domain Investor (SEOBook): Aaron interviews a guy even I’ve heard of.
• Diary of a Domain Virgin (SEMpdx): Todd Mintz talks about how he got started in domaining, but acknowledges that the results may not be visible for quite some time. (Tip: It’s all about patience!)
• The Domaining Revolution (Search Engine Guide): Todd talks about the recent Domain Roundtable conference with a beginner’s post on domaining.
• Why Warren Buffet Recommends You Invest in Domain Names (Tropical SEO): Andy draws very interesting parallels between stock investments and domain investments. The idea is that investing now is valuable in the long run.
• How to Get Started as a Domainer (Aviva Directory): So, have the articles convinced you to jump on the domainer’s bandwagon? Here’s how you can get started.
• Top 4 Lies Domainers Tell Themselves (Tropical SEO): Andy Hagans lies to himself, but at least he admits that he has a problem.

Miscellaneous

• 50 Perfect Gifts for Webophiles, Bloggers, and Internet Marketers: Rand lists some awesome gifts, and now I want them all!

And finally, Techipedia’s Best Posts for 2007 (that aren’t rants)

• Top 6 Idea for Incredible Viral Content
• A Review of Social News Site Mixx
• 11 Tips to Enhance Your Digg User Experience
• How I Network on Friendster, Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace
• Reputation Management with Marketing Gone Bad
• 29 Super Awesome Tools Built on the Digg API
• 13 Reasons Why I Am an Obsessive Compulsive Facebook User

Lastly, one real final milestone for me: my first mention in Forbes!

This reading should set you back 12 months… until 2009. But don’t only read these articles, because you’ll still need to catch up on the latest and greatest in Internet Marketing developments over the course of ’08 — unless you just want to come here next December.

[ Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007 is a post written by Tamar Weinberg. ]

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