Nick Usborne’s latest riff on long copy sales letters
Great article by Nick Usborne on why long copy sales letters work on the Web. He articulately explains the difference between two types of “long copy” Web pages. Approach #1: Selling with hype and extravagant claims related to instant riches, happiness and success. Somehow, many of us want to…
read moreInterestingly, double opt-in is *not* required by CAN-SPAM regs
Duly noted… I erred in a column I wrote today for BtoB E-mail Marketer Insight. I also published it in Are you getting an “F” in email marketing? in this week’s issue of WordBiz Report. (Article since revised.) Collecting email addresses with a double opt-in sign…
read moreFree content for your e-newsletter
Looking for articles you can reprint in your e-newsletter or ezine? Ezine-Tips has cleverly created an articles archive by inviting writers to submit articles on a range of B2C and B2B topics. You can submit articles free until 9 AM Central Sept. 1, 2004. Browse EzineArticles.com.
read moreNew BlogPulse blog about biz blogging
The clever folks over at Intelliseek, creators of BlogPulse, have set up a Webinar blog to complement their Webinars about… you guessed it, blogging. BlogPulse is a very cool tool. It lets you create “trend graphs” showing how often certain phrases or keywords are being used in…
read more3 kinds of blogs: product, issue or personality focused
Useful two-part article on business blogs by Alan Chapell, who writes a blog about consumer privacy issues. Part I talks about 3 types of blogs: product, issue or personality-focused. Part II talks about why transparency is important in business blogging. He mentions 7-Up’s Raging Cow blog…
read moreJust do it… ask for the order!
Jakob Nielsen is still churning out Alertbox, his e-newsletter on Web usability… after 9 years. This is one of those oldies-but-goodies you should definitely be reading. This week’s issue talks about linking directly – and obviously – to related products from informational articles. As Nielsen puts it,…
read more10 (mostly B2C) companies that should have blogs
Fun, useful article in today’s MarketingProfs.com by marketing consultant B.L. Ochman. Included in B.L.’s top 10 missed opportunities list: Teva and Tina, the elephant, for whom the company has been designing a line of footwear. (Unfortunately, Tina recently passed away.)
read moreNot another acronym; what is SPF?
If you’ve ever gotten an email “from yourself”… and you realized it was spam, then you’ll appreciate why SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and SenderID are the new buzz in anti-spam and email authentication efforts. I do not pretend to be an expert on this topic. But here are some useful…
read more“What’s all the blog about” in The Washington Times
Well-written special report about blogging in today’s Washington Times. And a cool front page photo of yours truly taken by Wash Times photographer Nancy Pastor. Kind of a hall of mirrors approach. Do you get it? First she took a close up.…
Entrepreneur Magazine’s new blog
Just launched. Entrepreneur (Almost) Daily is a good example of a group blog. Unfortunately, they’ve chosen to use blogging software that doesn’t enable either “permanent links” or “categories.” Why is that important? Because other blogs, Web sites, news sources can’t link to a particular blog entry. Which is part…
read moreWhat do you wear for a blog photo shoot?
A reporter just called from The Washington Times to say he’s sending a photographer to my home office to take a picture of me “blogging.” It’s for a story he’s doing on business blogs (he interviewed me). I’ll link to the article after it’s published. But for now… the…
read moreRalph F. Wilson’s Web site tips
Does this guy ever sleep?! Dr. Ralph F. Wilson recently updated two of his most popular articles about Web site design, development & promotion: 12 Website Design Decisions Your Business or Organization Will Need to Make Correctly (or you’ll have to do it all over within a year) (prints…
read moreDog days of summer
That’s the title of a mini column I wrote for today’s issue of BtoB Email Marketer Insight: It’s the dog days of summer. Should I keep publishing my e-newsletter?
read moreBlogging your expertise
Are you an expert? By one definition, you are after at least 10 years of sustained experience in your field. But are you being acknowledged as an expert? You’ll know when you: get interviewed by the media; receive awards or honors; are invited to speak at industry & association events;…
read moreHenri Cartier-Bresson’s “Decisive Moment”
As a child I was captivated by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s black and white photographs. I remember being mesmerized by a book of his photographs my parents left out on the coffee table. His “decisive moments” are so utterly perfect. At left is the…
Washington DC Metro Blogmap
I just stumbled across this. Clever, huh?! Click on the DC Metro Blogmap. Then run your cursor over the map. Bloggers who live/work adjacent to various metro stops pop up. These are “personal” blogs… Most don’t seem to have any business purpose. But I love the map idea.
read moreShould e-newsletter publishers blog?
Chris Knight of Ezine-Tips makes a good case that, yes, a blog makes sense even if you’re already publishing an email newsletter. He also points out you can create an RSS feed for your e-newsletter. This is something I’m working on. Read his article, “Must Email List…
read more800 (unmuzzled) Microsoft bloggers
You might have heard about Scobleizer, a blog written by Microsoft employee Robert Scoble. He describes himself as an evangelizer on the Windows team. Scobleizer is one of the best-known “thought leadership” blogs in the techie blogosphere. It’s also one of the top 50 most-read blogs, according to an…
read more3rd anniversary collector’s edition
Hard to believe but this week is the 3rd anniversary of WordBiz Report. It launched on July 21, 2001 as a text-only email. Today’s 3rd anniversary collector’s edition includes links to the 5 most popular articles published over the…
What is social media?
I confess to puzzling a bit over this term when I heard it recently. Here’s a clear explanation in a recent article about BlogOn: “technology that enables online interactive exchange among users.” By that definition, blogs or Weblogs are a subset of social media. Trackbacks (or comments) are…
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