• Some eCards - eCards for when you care enough to hit send. A fantastic collection of eCards that say it how it truly is.
• DZone - Fresh links for developers. It’s a “Digg” like website for coding and web development.
• 10 Things to Consider When Choosing The Perfect CMS - A major task like choosing a CMS is often skewed by sales pitches and lopsided marketing tactics from CMS companies. This is a great rundown on the basic principles of choosing a CMS.
• Open Source CMS - Try before you install. A nice little website that allows you to test out some basic open source CMS’s.
• What is your Google Analytics IQ? - Whoo-hoo! Google Analytics now offers an online course. $50 to take the test.
• CNBC Gives Financial Advice - Gotta watch this! This is one of the most viral web videos jumping across the web over the last couple of weeks. Jon Stewart tells it how it is.
• Xinu Returns - A site that tells you how socially connected your website is.
• Post Rank - Measure Audience Engagement.
• Clear and Effective Communication in Web Design - Thanks from Smashing Magazine on this one.
• Realtime Twitter Search Results on Google - I usually don’t recommend GreaseMonkey downloads but this is a huge exception. This download embeds Twitter search results into your Google search. Since Twitter has been argued to have the most up-to-date search results, this is a fantastic add-on.
• Check User Names - Finally ready to dive into social media (cough - Chuck)? Well you’re going to want to make sure you have a unique alias that you can build your own personal brand. Find out here.
• Idiot’s Ultimate Guide to Building Your Own Computer - I am a firm believer in that if you are a tech enthusiast, you should try to build your own computer at least once. Here’s a great place to start.
• Forrester is Wrong About Paying Bloggers - Forrester got attacked from all angles after posting an article about the benefits of paid blogging. The point of the attack was because they highlighted the benefits of paid blogging while not emphasizing the risks involved - example: websites can get blacklisted by Google. Read on…

Some great links to start your week out with bang!

• PopURLs - Need a quick fix on the latest web buzz. This fantastic site grabs the top items from some of most popular tech, social, and news sites and compiles it into a neatly laid out “plate of information goodness”.
• Twitterfall - If you’re still scratching your head on the whole idea of Twitter, then I don’t blame you. What I’ve come to learn is that the tools around Twitter are really what makes it great. Twitterfall is a tool that was built to filter out tweets across all of Twitter. It’s amazing for Reputation Management, Tweetup discussions, and real-time updates for major events. The main Twitter trends are in the left window. Yesterday’s big trend across Twitter was #snowmageddon, which was the big snowstorm we received last Thursday.
• Fireclick Index - I always encounter clients who ask me to give them an idea of how their website is doing in comparison to other companys’ websites. While it’s tough to give a good answer on this, I found some great benchmark metrics which I can pull out when needed. Fireclick (a web analytics vendor) has created a publicly available index providing benchmarks for key web analytics metrics that it has collected from all of its customers.
• [viral] Colbert Dials Up the 1997 Internet - This awesomely viral video from a Colbert Report has been floating around this week. “I did some pretty embarrassing things in 1997, but it all pales in comparison to what the internet was doing in 1997.”
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I attended a seminar last week on the Future of Email Marketing at The Depot in downtown Minneapolis. It was presented by Jeff Rohrs, the VP of Marketing at Exact Target. Overall, it was a great seminar and it raised some interesting points on where email marketing is heading in 2009.

Here were some of the significant take-aways (in a scattered format from my notes):

• The big value in Email Marketing is migrating to the “Social Inbox”. The social inbox is known as the inbox that we have through Facebox, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. These are the inboxes that we go to now expecting non-spammy messages from people (or companies) whom we have invited.
• Yahoo! is currently beta testing their own version of a social inbox which is getting a lot of buzz lately as being a big thing in 2009. This inbox will (somehow) be a collective inbox for all of our inboxes – voicemail, email, text messages, IMs, blogs, blog comments, RSS, etc. Essentially, it’s supposed to be a “one stop shop” for all of our incoming messages and media. One of the raving features is that will (supposedly) have a filtering feature that will adapt well with keeping spam and unnecessary messages out.
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RT: @chrispirillo http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com/

Slife
Slife is a downloadable application that tracks your own computer habits and then helps you to create goals around how you can work more efficiently and productively. If you’re like me and have a little trouble entering your time at the end of the day, then this is the tool that will help you.

History of the Internet
An awesome online animated documentary about the history of the internet. It was brilliantly done with a whole textbook of information crammed into a nice 7 min video. Enough nerdy information to make yourself the life of the party tonight.

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Google Maps: 100+ Best Tools and Mashups
It’s crazy how much you can do with Google Maps. This is pretty sweet column highlighting some of the Google Maps mash-ups around the web.

[for fun] Church Sign Battle
A funny religious debate between Catholics and Presbyterians carried out via passive aggressive church signs. (yes its fake)

Question: What do you guys think of Twitter?

Time to start fresh. I have high expectations for myself this year and to create my own pressure I thought I would blog about my 2009 goal list.

• Master Web Design
• Develop a web presense
• Blog:
  • Deliver Quality Content
  • Monetize my blog
  • Average 2 posts per week
• Attend an SEO/Web Conference
• Design the Guv’s Place website (my brother’s bar)
• Trips:
  • New York City
  • Washington D.C. - I love history!
• Redesign my girlfriend’s website
• Publish my first ebook (stay tuned…)
• Run another marathon
• Become a morning person
• Get organized.

That’s all I have. It will be fun to revisit this list 1 year from now and see what I have accomplished.

What are your 2009 goals/resolutions?

Concept Share – http://conceptshare.com/
ConceptShare allows you to setup secure online workspaces for sharing designs, documents and video and invite others to review, comment and give contextual feedback anytime and anywhere without a meeting.

EtherPad – http://etherpad.com/
This is a crazy concept developed by two ex-Google Engineers that allows you to open a word document in a web browser and make changes and edits simultaneously with others in real-time. I watched that screencast and it looks pretty sweet.

(for fun) Spider Email String - http://www.27bslash6.com/overdue.html (viral)
OK…so some of you may have seen this already since it has been passed around quite a bit, but if you haven’t, please enjoy. Very funny!

(for fun) Let Me Google that For You - http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/ (viral)
Very useful (with a pinch of sarcasm) when you have a non-computer savvy relative (or friend) who asks you a stupid question that could be solved in an instant by Google. Example: You get asked, “how do I find the website for US Bank?”. Your Answer: http://letmegooglethatforyou.com/?q=US+Bank

…Chuck & Peter - I hope all is well.

Low Cost Usability Testing – http://www.usertesting.com/
You pay $19 per person to have them review/test your website. You get a video of the user speaking along with a written review.

Flowgram – http://www.flowgram.com/
Free tool where you can assemble and annotate web pages, photographs, videos etc on any topic, and add a voice narrative which provides context, emotion and consistency. The flowgram can be shared as an embeddable widget, email or as a link to either a private group or with the world. Flowgram recipients can interact with any of its pages by, for example, clicking on links, and playing and pausing videos.

Sexy People – http://renz-o.blogspot.com/
Slightly misleading name. It’s not a bad site, but it’s ridiculously addicting. My fav so far: http://renz-o.blogspot.com/2008/09/robert.html

Congrats on launching into internet with your small business! This can be a little daunting at first, but if this is done right, you can achieve huge success. The important part is to stay persistent in spreading exposure of your small business…and keep your patience.

While most new small businesses levitate to Pay-Per-Click services like Google Adwords, Yahoo! Overture, and Microsoft Adcenter for increasing their web presence, these can be huge money wasters with very little pay-off - obviously this all depends on your goals. To flip it back around (not to confuse), DO try these services out, but do it conservatively - don’t invest a ton of money into them and geo target your ads if possible. Yes, they will generate traffic, but getting users to buy your product (or convert) is far more difficult for a new business. You will have more success with Pay-Per-Click as your brand becomes stronger and more trusted.

Biggest Struggle for Small Business Websites: Brand Awareness and Trust. Your site needs to be visible across the internet - this is also huge for search engines. Consumer’s are more likely to purchase from a recognizable brand. There’s a reason why you see the same old car ads sometimes.

Some basic techniques to generate traffic for your small business website:

1. Before you start anything - you must have a measurement tool to track your visitors. Try Google Analytics (free).

2. Submit your website to the major 3 search engines:
http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit
http://search.msn.com.sg/docs/submit.aspx

3. Make your website visible to your target audience. Submit your website URL to complimentary websites, blogs, and directories (focus on specific places where your audience will be). Ex: If you’re selling cakes, request a link (or submit an article linking) to your website on some big name cake websites.

4. Update your website often with fresh content. Give people a reason to comeback and tell others about your website. Start a blog to increase exposure.

5. Optimize your site for SEO (search engine optimization). This is almost a whole different topic, but you can start here:
http://www.google.com/webmasters/
http://searchengineland.com/070628-074149.php

6. Submit your site to geo-targeted services and business directories. Ex: https://www.google.com/local/add/
http://www.yelp.com/

7. Submit your site to business directories and vertical industry directories. Ex: https://ecom.yahoo.com/dir/submit/intro/
http://botw.org/
http://www.squidoo.com/
http://www.moli.com/
http://www.dmoz.org

8. Get involved in social networking and spread the word:
http://www.facebook.com
http://www.stumbleupon.com/
http://del.icio.us/

9. Submit Press Releases to get your small business in the news.
http://www.businesswire.com
http://www.prweb.com

10. Research tips on adapting your small business to the web successfully:
http://searchengineland.com/070628-074149.php

11. Keep researching creative and innovative ideas to increase exposure…

Related Links:

• 21 Essential SEO Tips & Techniques (Search Engine Land)

First off, the world of SEO and web marketing is an exciting one, but can be very challenging at times. With that said, there is no one stop shop for learning the arts of SEO and PPC.

Getting a Job in SEO/PPC (obviously this could be different between employers) : This will be difficult (not impossible) if you don’t have any experience under your belt. This is because there is still no definative “cookie cutter” way to achieve success in SEO/PPC. While there are the basic techniques of SEO, successful SEO needs to have elements of uniqueness, creativity and good troubleshooting. These all need to apply to the specific client/project you are working with (relation to industry, competitors, etc…). Being able to sell yourself as a successful candidate for a job, means demostrating to the employer that you have these traits and that you know how to apply them. You will also need to demonstrate that you have kept up with the latest trends. SEO never ends because tomorrow a new competitor will arise.

Start off with these 8 simple steps:
1) Learn the basic rules of the major 3 search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN). Google has one of the best knowledge bases for this: http://www.google.com/webmasters/
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html
http://webmaster.live.com/

2) Know the basic processs of SEO/PPC. Here’s a good article that outlines a pretty decently 10 Step process. Note: as you become more knowledgeable, you will likely develop your own process.
http://www.webpronews.com/expertarticles/2008/04/10/seo-step-nine-of-ten-conversion-optimization

3) Subscribe and Read up on some of the top SEO/PPC blogs:
http://www.seomoz.org/
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog
http://www.seobook.com/
http://www.searchengineland.com/
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
(many more, but those should give you a good start…)

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