Auto-posting to social networks

One of the key tools in the "Pro Toolkit" that I talk about in class is Hootsuite, a web site/service that enables you to schedule social media updates (using the "Publisher" feature) and also auto-posts articles from any RSS feed (often your blog) to your social media profiles.

If you're creating a substantial amount of content, services like Hootsuite or Seesmic can be a good way to nail that all-important marketing automation part of your business, so that you can go and do the things that are important to your operations.

Journalism.co.uk has a good review of another automated publishing tool, dlvr.it, which is geared toward organizations that publish a lot of content. If you're planning on extensive content creation, it might be worth a look. The article also mentions Buffer and IFTTT, the latter of which is one of my favorite web-based automation tools (though not for the technophobe). Read the article.

Where's the Ad? Half of Us Can't Tell

As I mention in class, the ads that Google and others run in their search engine results are often not obviously different from the natural (or "organic") search results themselves. Apparently, the FTC agrees and this week told search engine companies that they need to do a better job of identifying advertisements. I guess that barely visible light yellow background for Google's pay per click ads isn't doing the trick; a study by SEOBook found that almost half of searchers didn't recognize the difference. Full story at the New York Times.

The power of lists (and listicles)

Over at the Hubspot Marketing Blog, Dan Lyons has a (very) light piece on why lists have become a primary form of information presentation and consumption on the web. There's some lighthearted commentary as well as a few serious thoughts about how we've all become accustomed to casual skimming the place of actual reading. Like most lists, the piece is cheeky, easy to consume, and light on actual content. It's meta.

I don't know how much people truly read online, although Farhad Manjoo at Slate (also referenced in Lyons' article) has some real data about online reading trends that are pretty troubling if you value longer-form writing on the web. The long and short of it is that everything is getting, well, shorter.

One of the tips I give in the email marketing class is that subject lines with lists ("5 things" or "10 tips") are a nearly foolproof way to increase open rates. This isn't exclusive to online publishing; magazines have been doing it for years to entice you to grab an issue off the newsstands. (Websites initially embraced lists spread across multiple pages as a way to juice page views, but advertisers caught on to this, and now more and more lists are simply spread the length of many screens.)

Should we lament our susceptibility to this informational junk food? I don't know. We all seem to be wired to crave a quick fix, a simple solution. The web has just given us our best delivery method yet.

The Tricky Business of Selling Via Amazon

Those of you that are building e-commerce sites are presented with a host of options, from Shopify to Magento to dozens of others. Many businesses also set up shop on eBay or Amazon because of the broad exposure you receive by being part of their marketplaces. You make a little less money on each sale and you have to abide by some fairly complex (and frequently changing) rules, but you have immediate access to a large audience of buyers without having to engage in SEO to build your presence from the ground up.

As some sellers have seen, though, selling through giants like Amazon or eBay can be difficult if you don't meet their standards for feedback or ratings. These marketplaces put such rules in place to weed out fraudulent sellers, but they can also snare legitimate businesses and hold up their payments for months at a time. If you're considering Amazon, check out this article from The Seattle Times detailing complaints from sellers regarding Amazon's payment and account policies. While these are isolated cases out of many happy sellers, it's worth understanding the power a giant like Amazon (and eBay, Google and many others) has in its seller agreements. View the article here.

Pay-per-click alternatives

The New York Times has an interesting piece on pay-per-click alternatives. Advertisers - especially small business - are beginning to search for alternatives to Google's AdWords program as the cost per click creeps up beyond many companies' threshold for a healthy ROI.

As I've pointed out in the SEO classes, many advertisers are also building content to improve organic ranking, and it works well for those who put the time into it. Check out the article here.

Bare-Bones Analytics

Over at the eBlox blog, I discuss the basics of web analytics in a hopefully non-soporific manner. If you want to understand the basic measurements of success (and failure) on the web and don't have a month to learn an analytics package, you might want to check it out for a quick read.

The rapidly diminishing area for organic results

It Really Is a Google World and We Are All Just Living in It | Mihmorandum:

We've talked extensively in the SEO classes about how Google's organic (or "natural") results are being pushed further and further down due to the predominance of paid advertising in the search engine. This article (and the heated discussion below) provides a good overview of what's happened to that supposedly sacrosanct search results page (SERP) over the years.

Email Subject Lines

Mailchimp has a great piece - with some actual data to back up their findings - on best practices for writing subject lines. Since we cover subject line writing in class (and I suggest a few tips of my own, including the cheesy ones), this is a good set of guidelines for those of you wishing to dig a little bit deeper into subject line writing: What are some best practices in writing email subject lines? | MailChimp.com

A Restaurant, Dive Shop, And Bakery Share Their Groupon Experience (TCTV) | TechCrunch:

Three San Francisco businesses recount their experience with Groupon.

Infographic: Why Content For SEO?:

Some good data on why content matters so much for SEO and ranking, all zipped up in a neat little infographic for your pleasure.

Google Places Mischief

Interesting piece in the New York Times on the dangers of crowdsourcing business information. Google Places, like similar services such as Yelp, uses user-submitted information on local businesses to keep its listings up to date. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous users post incorrect information intentionally, such as indicating that the business has closed down! Read the full article here, along with some additional analysis from The Atlantic Wire here.

Over at the eBlox blog, thoughts on how Google's local deals ambitions are rubbing up against their fight against web spam. Is encouraging quantity over quality in reviews a violation of Google's own principles? Read it here.

Infographic: Are Deals Sites Here to Stay or Just the Latest Craze? - Nicholas Jackson - Technology - The Atlantic

I've got mixed feelings about daily deal sites. As we've discussed in the Web Marketing and Advertising class, if you view them purely as a marketing expense and measure their value by customer acquisition cost, then at least you've got a good basis for determining whether or not they actually make economic sense. This G+ infographic (analyzed in detail by The Atlantic) gives a pretty good idea of how deal sites work and what they actually mean to merchants in terms of cost. For merchants that can afford the customer acquisition cost, there's the secondary issue of capacity - can you handle the rush of deal-seekers? As always, be careful what you wish for. Full article here.

The Top 20 Most Expensive Keywords in Google AdWords Advertising | WordStream

Some interesting info for those of you considering advertising online. Wordstream has compiled a list of the most expensive keywords in Google's AdWords pay-per-click advertising system. "Insurance" takes the cake with a 24% share and a top CPC (cost per click) of almost $55! Check out the infographic here. It might give you a few good ideas on keyword campaigns to avoid!

The New York Times on Content Farms

The paper of record provides a good overview of the hows and whys of content farms, and what Google has launched in the last few months to combat them. If you're looking for a straightforward, layman-friendly explanation of how content farms work and why they make money, you should check it out.

Of course, you can expect the content farms, spammers and questionable SEO companies to adapt in response, but for now, the results are looking pretty good. Read it here.

In class, I often mention "content farms" as an example of the SEO-influenced clutter that makes up most of the internet's online content. It's tough to get your head around exactly how much of the content out there is created solely for gathering clicks and viewers (and thus dollars) as opposed to actually informing people. The amount of junk content is truly staggering, and it's only getting worse.

Here, then, is an interesting tell-all by a "content farm" writer from AOL. It's not pretty stuff, and once you understand how much of this junk is being created, you'll get a much better idea of just how difficult it is for search engines to find the content that matters. As I've discussed before, Google is constantly adjusting its algorithm to rank the junk lower, but it's an uphill battle.

For Some, Blogs Also Pay the Bills - NYTimes.com

For Some, Blogs Also Pay the Bills - NYTimes.com

During classes, we often talk about making money with content – you write about something you love and magically get paid for it, often using a product like Google's Adsense, which lets you monetize your popularity by selling ads on your site.

This New York Times article highlights some bloggers and entrepreneurs who've actually turned their hobbies and passions into an online profit center. Check it out here.

A VC: Finding And Buying A Domain Name

A VC: Finding And Buying A Domain Name

Some interesting tips from venture capitalist Fred Wilson on domain names. Wilson is targeting web startup entrepreneurs in the article, but his advice is interesting, and echoes the guidance I give in class. It's tough to come up with something unique, so having some additional options and ideas is always helpful. Of particular interest is Wilson's suggestion to consider "renting to own" domains. It's worth a read if you're working on business and/or domain names. Check it out here.

How PPC Can Improve Organic Search Conversions

How PPC Can Improve Organic Search Conversions

One question I get asked frequently in class is whether or not advertising on Google's AdWords pay-per-click advertising system can also improve the organic performance of your site. It doesn't directly, but this interesting (and a bit technical) piece over at Search Engine Land describes how you can use your PPC campaigns to help you convert organic leads. Worth a read if you are considering pay-per-click. Check it out here.

Facebook Marketing eBook

Social Fresh has published a very brief eBook (really more of a pamphlet, if anyone remembers those) loaded with tips for making your business Facebook page more dynamic and engaging. Some good info here, especially if you are a consumer-oriented business. As always, those of you with business-to-business selling models should take all the Facebook marketing hype with a grain of salt - engagement with business-to-business brands is limited on Facebook, and it may make more sense to direct your day-to-day engagement activities to LinkedIn. Download the eBook here.