Friday Night Link-o-rama
(What a week…is it really Friday?)
One of the best posts I’ve read all year: The Future of Communications – A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing by Brian Solis. Yes, it’s long. Yes, it starts a bit slow. But you’ll be glad you read the whole thing very carefully.
And on a somewhat related note, but this one specifically as it relates to blogging, David Meerman Scott tells How to convince your boss to let you start a corporate blog.
I’ve had the pleasure of chatting with Larry Sullivan via e-mail a few times in recent months, often about local search issues. So, it’s nice to see his blog is up and running and going strong. Have a look at Local Biz Bits and subscribe to the feed. (Larry: may I be so bold as to suggest you drop the Snap.com link previews?) 🙂
This is pretty creative, and I’m willing to bet it works, too. On copyblogger, Michael Stelzner writes How to Improve Your Image by NOT Delivering. If you do any white paper or similar type of subscription-based lead generation, it’s worth your time.
Here’s something practical: Search Engine Journal shares a couple coupon codes to save money when submitting to the Aviva Directory and Best of the Web directory (both of which are on my directory submission list).
Two good ones this week from GrokDotCom: Start with Holly Buchanan’s Why Testimonials Do (and Don’t) Work, and then check out Start Multivariate Testing: 7 Critical Questions from Bryan Eisenberg.
I liked Stoney’s “Small is Beautiful” column on SEL this week: Stepping Stones Of User Conversions: A Step-By-Step Guide. I’ve got the next two weeks in that column and hope to come up with something as good.
I know a lot of small businesses are doing PPC, but I’m not sure how many here in the U.S. are doing PPC in other countries, or considering it. If you are, have a look at Pat Schaber’s Tips for Launching Paid Search Campaigns in Different Countries.
I’ve done a couple posts recently about the sometimes negative impact the Internet and technology has on some small businesses. Anita Campbell writes about The Trend of Small Retail Moving to the Web — how some small retailers are surviving by going to a Web only business arrangement.
That’s all for this week.
Now playing: “In My Place,” Coldplay (my Last.fm profile)
Hey Matt,
Thanks for the mention! PPC outside of the US will grow. If you have a customer base potential in foreign countries, you can reach them with lower CPC and higher click-through-rates. Plus, so far, my conversions have been consistently highly-qualified leads. WIN-WIN!
I knew you wouldn’t write about it if something wasn’t going on in that area, Pat. Glad to hear it’s working well for you so far.
Thanks for pointing out my post, Matt.
I’m gathering examples of small businesses moving to online-only for a magazine article. I would welcome hearing from anyone with specific company examples that I can write about.
Anita
Anita – where can people contact you? Email me some more details and I’ll do a post about it. matt@ …… this domain. 🙂