Entrepreneur team says, “The idea of quality content has been around since 2011 when Google’s Panda Update first hit and sites with bad content were sent to the basement of search engine results. Since then, content providers have had to be on their toes to ensure that everything they create and post is high quality. But what, exactly, does... [Read more]

Regina Love says, “After 35 years in the industry, Chinese Laundry, a privately held women’s footwear company, continues to expand its influence season after season. During Internet Retailer Conference Exhibition (IRCE) 2015, MarketingSherpa’s Courtney Eckerle spoke at the MarketingSherpa Media Center with Scott Cohn, Vice President of Ecommerce,... [Read more]

Tamar Weinberg says, “The age of social media has brought about a new dynamic in customer communications: The concept of “real time” has made companies more accountable to their customers. The application of the concept goes beyond generic customer service, however. In fact, if anything, companies and brands should see the importance... [Read more]

Here’s a new strategy for Amazon affiliates. If you get an early warning about what is going to be a hot product on Amazon, you can be the first to advertise that product. And that should give you an advantage in the search engines and in sales. How can you find out about products that have just been launched or are about to be launched to be... [Read more]

Christi Olson says, “If you haven’t done it already, now would be a great time to take a fresh look — or even a first look — at how data feeds can reinvigorate your online marketing strategy and prepare your business for an undeniable shift in the search space. Structured data feeds are the silent drivers behind a new search experience centered... [Read more]

Nick Barber says, “If your idea of “doing video” means having a YouTube channel, then you need to up your game. While a freemium player like YouTube can be an important part of an overall video strategy, it shouldn’t be the only part. We detail that and more in Forrester’s Vendor Landscape: Online Video Platforms For Sales And Marketing.... [Read more]

Drew Price says, “You know what hurts? Spending roughly three weeks (or more) shepherding an email from ideation to deployment … only to realize later that an error made it all the way through to your customers’ inboxes. I know this feeling all too well — I’ve made a few dingers myself over the years. And while none of the... [Read more]

IM NewsWatch had server problems a couple of weeks ago. We were down for a week. It was a miserable 10 days. Why the long delay in getting it back running after the break-down? Well, we had out data backed up, but our software that runs the site had not been backed up and it it had to be re-built... [Read more]

John Rampton says, “With over 1.6 billion monthly active users, there is no doubt that Facebook is the place to be when it comes to looking for platforms to scale your growing business. But how can you leverage this dominant social media channel to make the most of your impressive business efforts? Here’s a list of seven apps that your company... [Read more]

Tom Anthony says, “App search is growing and changing, and there’s more opportunity than ever to both draw customers in at the top of the funnel and retain them at the bottom. In today’s special British Whiteboard Friday, Tom Anthony and Will Critchlow of Distilled dig into everything app search and highlight a future where Google... [Read more]

Christopher Jan Benitez says, “First impressions are critical when it comes to digital marketing. The online audience tends to be very picky, and will quickly turn away from your site for the littlest of things such as slow loading speed and too many ads. This is why you should build a website that can hook an audience right above the fold, the... [Read more]

Cindy Donovan Bettye has been hard at work, turning out useful software for people and companies who market their goods and services online. One of her latest and best is 'StickyPost'. This is a new WordPress plugin that any person can use. It lets you pull into your posts, graphics that will illustrate them, making them more attractive, more "sticky".... [Read more]

Ben Davis says, “Android Instant Apps allows Android apps to run instantly, without requiring installation. Users will simply tap on a URL. Developers will need to ensure their apps are ‘modularized’ and then will be able to offer this service to users on Jelly Bean OS or later. Many have hailed this announcement from Google’s... [Read more]

Caroline Early says, “We always have great guests on Rainmaker FM, and this week is no exception … This week’s Rainmaker Rewind features an interview on The Writer Files with advice columnist and author Heather Havrilesky who chats about her writing process as well as the many hats she’s worn over the last 20 years. Plus, I’ve included... [Read more]

Timothy Carter says, “Marketing is all about persuasion. Of course, you could argue that some of the most successful brands of all time—Coca-Cola or Nike, say—got to where they are not by convincing people that their products were the best but by simply making their name more visible. However, even visibility is a persuasive event: For example,... [Read more]

If you want to be an author, e-books are a good way to begin.  The costs to publish an e-book are minimal. And the time to publication can be less than a week after you finish writing your book... [Read more]

Tim Peterson says, “Apparently it’s “Back to the Future” week for social networks’ ad networks. A few days after Facebook announced it would begin to bring its Audience Network to the desktop web for the first time — albeit only for traditional in-stream video ads at the moment — Twitter is bringing its Twitter Audience Platform to... [Read more]

Christina Warren says, ““We’re kind of in an AI Spring,” says John Giannandrea, Google’s head of machine learning. Giannandrea’s statement — a reference to the term AI winter — sums up how the use cases, interest and research in artificial intelligence are really taking off. During a Google I/O panel on Friday held at the company’s... [Read more]

Danielle Launders says, “In April, we hopped on a plane to go visit our friends in the City of Brotherly Love to share an evening of learning, networking, and, of course, eating, for our latest MozTalk. Wait, what’s a MozTalk, you ask? Well, let me tell you! MozTalks are after-work events, featuring two-four speakers, focusing on topics relevant... [Read more]

Jimmy Kim's latest software release is 'Push Connect Notify'. This new software lets you "push" messages to your subscribers with whatever promotion or news you want to share... [Read more]

Greg Sterling says, “According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, bids for Yahoo are expected to come in (or came in) at less than the $4 to $8 billion anticipated by many analysts. Instead they are more likely in the range of $2 billion to $3 billion according to the article: Bidders have lowered their expected prices following weeks of... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Consumers who use their smartphones to shop say the most important feature of a mobile e-commerce offering is the ability to allow shoppers to easily see product photos, according to a recent report from Nielsen. The report was based on data from a survey of 3,734 adults age 18 and older in the United States who have used their... [Read more]

Lauren Hintz says, “As strangers move through the sales funnel to become leads, opportunities, then customers, every interaction they have with your company — from engaging with marketing content, to email conversations with sales, to a kickoff call with your customer service team — is an opportunity to turn a stranger into a brand... [Read more]

Jess Bahr says, “It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said, “If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.” Now as cliché as it is to begin an article with a quote, I simply couldn’t resist. Nor could I resist following Emerson’s advice, in this case seeking out reading recommendations from a group of marketers,... [Read more]

Ahmad Raza says, “When running a B2B business, your main concern is generating leads. According to a study, 61 percent of B2B marketers pointed out that generating high-quality leads is their biggest concern and biggest challenge. You already know that creating content is one way to generate B2B sales, and you already know about the importance... [Read more]

You’ve hear the saying, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. That’s true online, too. (IM NewsWarch is still the exception.) Free services have bills to pay, just like everyone else. They will find a way to pay those bills; almost always from their users. One extreme example of this is the Hola service (http://hola.org),... [Read more]

Jodi Harris says, “There’s a sickness in social media content marketing, and Andrew Davis is committed to finding a cure. In his keynote presentation at Content Marketing World, Andrew – a best-selling author and the founder of Monumental Shift, the world’s first talent agency for marketing thought leaders – asserted that social media... [Read more]

Nicole Dvorak says, “Today, the average US smartphone owner spends over 2 hours per day using apps and websites on their device — more time than they spend watching TV. Despite this, most of the time that consumers spend using these mobile devices is to communicate with others. Downloaded social networking and communication apps — messaging,... [Read more]