Baer says, “When I was 24, I was broke and living on my sister’s couch after a career-ending football injury. My dream of being a pro-football player was done. I had no work experience and a pile of mounting credit card debt. My arm was in a huge cast that was really uncomfortable (for six long months). I was feeling low. At Christmas that year,... [Read more]

Brian Watson says, “Earlier this year, based on my work at Adobe and my career, I wrote Is Time Really the Problem? Break the Bottlenecks in Content Production to challenge readers to discover and address the real hurdle in their content production cycle. One particular reader’s comment ended up challenging me. It came from Michael Aldea, a... [Read more]

Jason Parks says, “Instagram’s launch in 2010 was the equivalent to the new popular kid, “Ian,” moving to your high school at the beginning of the year. Girls couldn’t stop commenting about his good looks and guys were thrilled that he’d compete for the starting goalie position in hockey. Even though students had their loyalty to “Tyler,”... [Read more]

Dr. Ben Adkins calls himself The Evil Traffic magician. He uses unorthodox (magical?) methods to get traffic to his websites. Like actual magicians, Adkins doesn’t normally reveal his tricks except to his close associates. But over the last 4 years, Adkins has traveled all over the United States and has made friends with some of the most experienced... [Read more]

Thanks to Ghergich & Co. (and a special shout-out to Megan) for sharing this infographic with us for the benefit of our readers. Copyright Infringement: Images You Can and Can’t Share on Your Blog  [Read more]

Ginny Marvin says, “In its ongoing efforts to attract more advertising dollars from big brands, Twitter has launched Brand Hub social listening analytics. Brand Hub is meant to give companies a centralized place to get insights on share of voice trends and the people and audiences talking about their brands on Twitter. Most big brands... [Read more]

Shelley Kessler says, “The first hot sheet of the holiday season looks at email by the numbers. Volume in the first two weeks is up 25.5 percent year-over-year across all industries. With this large increase, it’s not surprising that performance metrics have been slightly lower. Marketers need to work smarter, not harder. Analyzing and understanding... [Read more]

Precious Ngwu has just discovered a new piece of marketing ?technology called “Customer-Driven Funnels” ???and he has been testing it out for the past 2 months, ?with surprisingly good results. People like to express their opinions. Whether about movies, politicians, gadgets or food, they want to be heard. Online marketers can help them...... [Read more]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Search ranking is a critical component of any inbound marketing strategy. When it comes to designing and writing content for your website, it’s important to have search engine optimization top-of-mind. After all, the top three results on a search query get 61% of all search clicks — and 75% of search engine... [Read more]

Mike O’Brien says, “Video is getting bigger and bigger, but where is it going? According new research, programmatic video buying and branded video content are just two areas marketers should focus on in the future. Since last year, digital video ad spend has swollen 42 percent to 7.46 bn, a number that is expected to nearly double by 2019.... [Read more]

Vebeka Guess says, “Ecommerce traffic is shifting. Forrester projects that retail sales on smartphones and tablets will total $115bn in 2015 and $252bn in the US by 2020. However, according to its recent survey: “There is a big disconnect between traffic and sales on mobile devices. While 47% of traffic comes from mobile devices, only 28%... [Read more]

Lucas Adamski is a well-known graphics designer, specializing in marketing graphics. Over the last several years he has released many packages of graphics that have improved websites, blogs and banner ads around the world... [Read more]

Brian Clarke says, “There have never been more people looking to build a business around digital products and services. These days, when we say “entrepreneur,” we’re often talking about someone who’s entering the field of digital commerce. It sounds attractive right? Building a purely digital business where you create, sell, and deliver... [Read more]

ReadWrite team says, “Two years ago VMware president Carl Eschenbach snidely suggested that he found it “really hard to believe that we cannot … beat a company that sells books.” Two years later, the truth has become blindingly clear: He can’t. What’s less obvious is just how big Amazon Web Services has become, in terms... [Read more]

Martin Beck says, “Facebook is revamping mobile notifications to give people the option to add personal-assistant-style reminders. The new features will offer people contextual reminders based on their connections and other activity on the social network, displayed on cards within the notifications tab. It’s very similar to the predictive suggestions... [Read more]

If you are looking to increase your effectiveness in internet marketing, these collection of free training may be just what you need... [Read more]

Michele Linn says, “Do you know exactly who you are creating content for and why? What does your brand stand for and why do you publish? Does everyone in your organization know why? If you – and everybody in your company – can answer yes, congratulations! You have one of the key components you need to be successful at content marketing. You... [Read more]

Ben Davis says, “You may have seen the news that Google plans to provide web search results and search ads for an unspecified number of Yahoo user queries. See the SEC filing here. So, what does that mean for marketers? Reach more potential customers with AdWords 12.7% of US search queries go through Yahoo, according to ComScore. That means... [Read more]

Angie Pascale says, “Now that Facebook Lead Ads are available to all advertisers, B2B and B2C marketers can utilize the social platform as a tool to help cultivate relationships and nurture leads. With so many social networks focused on courting e-commerce brands with new Buy Now buttons and product focused ads, it’s nice to see Facebook providing... [Read more]

Google is still king of the search engines. So marketers who want to do well need to keep Google in mind, whatever else they do... [Read more]

Dan T Pickett says, “It’s the tech term du jour: the “Internet of Things.” Simply stated, it’s the connection of technology devices to the Internet, everything from smartphones, coffeemakers, cars and lamps to anything with an on-off switch. In many ways, the move has been almost inevitable with the cost of broadband Internet... [Read more]

Jim Kelley says, “More than half of all email opens and 38 percent of clicks occur on a mobile device, which is why it’s crucial to mobile optimize your emails. Responsive design is the “buzz term” that solves this problem, and marketers want it now. As a solution guy, the first thing I’ll communicate is that responsive email is not your... [Read more]

Lindsa Kolowich says, “Chances are, if someone mentions GoPro, you think of a super-sturdy camera for the adventurous. Why’s that? Because GoPro has done a good job defining its brand. Great brands like GoPro are easy to recognize. Their missions are clear, and they foster that customer loyalty all businesses crave. A brand is one of... [Read more]

Rainmaker team says, “The dream of building a business around digital products and services is as old as the Internet itself. Unfortunately, the early days of “digital commerce” were overpopulated with snake oil promises and “Online Cash Machine” hype. Fortunately, things have changed: Sales of ebooks exceeded $5 billion in 2014 Online... [Read more]

Yuyu Chen says, “Millennials are taking over as parents. How can you connect with them with innovative marketing approaches? More than 80 percent of new moms in the U.S. are millennials, according to 2015 stats from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Millennial moms are different from their previous generations: they are more involved... [Read more]

Jack Simpson says, “Twitter recently launched a new polling feature on its site, and there has already been plenty of discussion around how marketers could use it to their advantage. But the question remains as to whether this could be a genuinely useful tool through which brands can engage with followers, or whether it is simply a bit of a... [Read more]

Nadya Khoja says, “There is often much debate between whether you should create original content or curate a diversity of content. Many content marketers have attempted to answer this question and reach the perfect solution at discovering the content curation and creation sweet spot. Although content curation is the most practiced method of content... [Read more]

Danny Wong says, “Marketing destination travel has become increasingly difficult in recent years. In the past, hospitality brands regularly advertised in newspapers and magazines and on television, hoping to reach maybe one in a million. But recent trends have encouraged travel businesses to pursue more personalized marketing methods. Smart... [Read more]