InternetMarketingClub.org Presents What Is Online Marketing’s Role Within Marketing Resource Management (MRM)?

Today’s increasingly complex, distributed and digitally driven marketing ecosystem is challenging marketers to better integrate and manage data, best of breed solutions, creative resources, brand assets and go-to-market functions. Marketing process improvement, efficiency and yield is directly tied to more effective use of tools, platforms, analytics and intelligence that improve relevancy, delivery, access, control, workflow, partner collaboration, market engagement, sales lead provisioning, as well as campaign measurement and tracking.

It’s not only about marketing online today. It’s about the consumer’s preference on how to be engaged in a dialog, and how to facilitate that dialog through the use of multiple mediums. Understanding how to manage a brand, and how a brand can leverage their various channels to reinforce their value/brand and increase sales.

Get a glimpse of how an emerging industry; Marketing Resource Management (MRM) is becoming an essential part of the Marketer’s arsenal in executing on the distribution of marketing assets and messaging. Whether it is a combination of on-line and off-line marketing, you will learn firsthand what the emerging options are.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

- What is MRM
- Why is MRM important to the Brand and the Channel
- What options are available today
- What is an optimal “go to” market strategy
- Successful case studies

Gary Ritkes is a Managing Director at SproutLoud Media Networks. SproutLoud helps companies manage their brands and messages in local-level marketing. Their web-based Marketing Resource Management (MRM) application provides a comprehensive marketing platform in an easy to use interface, enabling local marketers to access the materials they need in the media of their choice, customize them, and reach their target audience with brand-controlled messaging.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, March 2, 2011 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: What Is Online Marketing’s Role Within Marketing Resource Management (MRM)?

WordPress 3.1 Now Released

Yesterday, WordPress 3.1 was rolled out after a several month delay. Referred to by the alias “Reinhardt” (in honor of the jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt), the update appears to be jam-packed with lots of helpful features.

The list of features includes:

• Redesigned linking workflow
• Admin bar
• Streamlined writing interface
• Post formatting support
• New CMS capabilities
• …and a bunch of other nifty features

I installed the update last night (after doing a backup of course) and began testing out the features. So far, I’m not too crazy about the ‘Admin Bar’ – but there are workarounds for disabling it. I look forward to exploring the rest of the features within the next week.

What do you like/dislike about the update?

Image credit: Stickergiant

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Website Lab Webinar

Join Jay Berkowitz, CEO of TenGoldenRules.com, as we step into his website analysis laboratory in our exclusive Wednesday Webinar, “Website Lab.” This webinar invites attendees to submit your websites for review by Jay Berkowitz and the TenGoldenRules.com team.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Understanding how to adhere to standard web conventions
• Advanced Tactics for Improving the User Experience
• Proven Strategies to Successfully Optimize your Website for the Search Engines
• Best Practices for Website Usability

To submit your websites, please message Jay Berkowitz through the InternetMarketingClub.org.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, February 23, 2011 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Website Lab

Facebook Was Just Born!!!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, or optimizing a PPC campaign from your parent’s basement, you have heard of the chaos that took place in Egypt. One of the reasons the citizens were able to come together and revolt was from the social networking website, Facebook. Now, one man, Gamal Ibrahim, has named his daughter…. FACEBOOK. He is said to have done this to express his joy in what took place. I think it’s great that the county was able to stand up for what they believed in and utilized today’s technology to form peaceful protests and make a difference. As for the baby naming, I think I’ll let you decide for yourself, but in America, we do have babies named after fruit, landmarks, animals and other unique objects. So, I say, great! If this man and his family feel such a connection to the company then do as you feel, however, does he have to worry about trademarking rights?

How do you start a new website? Get some Google Juice!

The best way to start a new venture is to get a little Google Juice right away. What is Google juice? Making your site important in the eyes of Google and the other search engines so that when someone searches for something you do your website comes up on the first or second page, not page 3,000.



How do you get Google juice?

The 3 most important things you need are:

#1 START NOW. Google values 'site age' and you must add some basic words on a basic site to start the clock on the age of your site. Do not wait for teh final website design, get something on there immediately! The best way to do that is to figure out your website domain name and set up a basic WordPress.com blog, point the blog at your domain, and start talking about your industry. See JayBerkowitz.com for an example of a basic WordPress site pointed at a domain.

#2 You need other sites linking TO your site. How do you get links to your site? Write interesting articles (blog posts). For example, write about news in your industry, comment on current trends, answer the top 10 questions people have. Keep the questions and answers simple, this is not where you show off how smart you are, you are just placing the text on the site in case they are looking for it. For example I just wrote a simple blog post called 'How do you start a new website?'

#3 You need content. Write one blog post every day. Yes, every day. 1-2 paragraphs, it is critical during the first few months to tell Google this new site is alive and refresh it every day to start to get indexed or 'read' by their automated spiders.

Where do you get a domain name? Try to get something short (it is hard because all good 1 word and 2 word domains are already taken, but they might be available for purchase. Don't pigeonhole yourself with too specific a name. Most great companies start out with one direction in mind and end up doing something different. You can search for more names that are owned by someone but available for purchase at SnapNames.com and www.sedo.com

Good luck getting started and please feel free to ask any questions about starting a new site below, or post a link to your site in the comments once you get it live!

Photo Credit Flickr: Johannes P Osterhoff

Will Oreo Set a Facebook Guinness Record Today?

Did you hear about Oreo’s announcement this morning? It’s official! They have embarked on a Facebook mission: setting the first ever Guinness World Record for the most “Likes” to a Facebook post within 24 hours. Oreo is well on its way too – as I’m writing this post they are currently at 40,173 “Likes”.

This is an excellent example of community engagement. Of course you may not have as many Facebook ‘Likers’ as a huge brand like Oreo, however, can you harness the power of your own community as they did? Continuously engage with your community, providing them with value/fun during every touch point. If you do so, perhaps you too can set out for a Facebook Guinness Record!

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents How to Build Your List and Make More Sales with LinkedIn

Join Lewis Howes, the LinkedIn Expert, as he presents, “How to Build Your List and Make More Sales with LinkedIn.” Join one of LinkedIn's biggest unofficial ambassadors as he teaches you the essentials for LinkedIn success.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Why is LinkedIn so powerful and why should someone take notice of it over the Twitter and Facebooks of the world?
• Proven methods for professionals utilizing LinkedIn
• How can someone use LinkedIn to get more targeted leads?
• Using LinkedIn to build a community
• Understanding how to use LinkedIn to convert a community onto your email list
• Advanced applications to take your profile and brand to the next level

Lewis Howes has written two books on the topic of LinkedIn, has given over 300 webinars and live speeches on the topic, and has hosted over 20 LinkedIn networking events all around the world. He is considered one of LinkedIn's biggest unofficial ambassadors and has helped thousands of professionals and small businesses receive more leads, publicity, and sales all by harnessing the power of LinkedIn.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: How to Build Your List and Make More Sales with LinkedIn

New Changes in Store for Facebook Pages

Facebook has been rapidly advancing in the past year. After recently changing their messaging system, and launching a Profile redesign, today you will see new features to the Pages.

The new Facebook Pages layout is quite similar to the new Facebook Profiles. Facebook Pages have a nice layer of photos at the top of their page, as well as the navigation below their "profile photo". Some new features are:

• Left-hand information box below the profile photo is now removed
• Page admins can now add their information about their brand directly below the main title
• The right menu highlights the page admins (if you choose to display their profiles)
• The right menu also has a section that shows how many mutual friends have "liked" that page
• Page admins can also "login as a Page", which gives them the ability to interact within Facebook as the Page itself
• Pages cannot post on a user's wall or comment on their status, rather they can post on another page as the brand
• Filters can be applied to bring the most relevant posts from the page's community to the forefront
• The new Facebook Pages can also filter out posts that are not in the language that you speak!

Check out an example from Mashable.com on the new Facebook Pages:























For more information on the new Facebook Pages, visit Mashable.com. What are your thoughts on the new layout?

Online Shopping for Valentine's Day

According to a report from eBillMe Online Spending Index, 32 percent of consumers plan to do their Valentine's Day shopping online this year, a 9 percent increase from 2010. There are definitely some online retailers who will be clamoring to get their share of those online consumer dollars. Here are some of my favorite sites for finding a great gift:

The place for unique and personalized gifts has a Valentine's Day Gift Guide to help you find the perfect gift for him or her. Choose from categories like bestsellers, flowers, jewelry and romantic.

Competing with Hallmark, Teleflora, FTD and 1800Flowers, this online flower retailer has a different spin. A lower price point and a do-it-yourself arrangement. I wonder which flower retailer will be the big winner this year?

These are my FAVORITE ecard characters. I don't know what my folks at American Greetings have to compete but these are my "go to" ecard guys. People love them!

Where will you be shopping this Valentine's Day?

Mashable Follow: The New Social Layer

Today Mashable announced the launch of their new social layer called, Mashable Follow. As it enters beta testing today, Mashable has unveiled some of its features which include:

• Ability to find and follow your favorite topics. Interested in reading about a specific topic? Simply click the ‘Follow’ button.
• Easily share stories amongst your favorite networks with the click of one button rather than several.
• Follow people who are of interest to you.
• Earn fun badges for sharing stories and connecting with other Mashable users.

Mashable is one of my top sites for social and digital media, technology and web culture news; so I’m really excited about this new feature. Why? As Mashable continues to grow and expand, so has its content. With not enough hours in the day as it is, any tool that allows you to sift through content to extract what you really need is such a valuable feature. If you want to sign up for a beta invite like I, click here.

Mashable states the ultimate aim for the Follow Project is to empower their community to choose the news of the day in this curation fashion.

Watch the video below to learn more:

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents Ten Leading Strategies for Online Lead Generation

Join Jay Berkowitz, CEO of TenGoldenRules.com, and Jamie Nacht Farrell, Principal of BizRelationsEDU, in this Wednesday Webinar, “Ten Leading Strategies for Online Lead Generation.” There is a whole category of Internet marketing called ‘lead gen’ or lead generation. Learn all about how to generate leads for your business using leading strategies for lead gen.

This presentation will explain the following topics:

• Understanding the easiest way to get started with lead gen
• What is lead gen and how can you effectively use it for business?
• What are the best lead sources today
• Best practices for a company's lead gen programs
• Building, managing and maintaining your lead database
• Converting leads to sales
• Lead generation pitfalls and mistakes to avoid

Jay Berkowitz is an author, an educator, an International keynote speaker and an award-winning thought leader. A senior online marketing professional with over twenty five years of marketing experience, Mr. Berkowitz has managed marketing departments for Fortune 500 brands: Coca-Cola, Sprint and McDonald's Restaurants, and he has developed online and offline strategies for AT&T and leading health and fitness website eDiets.com.

Jamie Nacht Farrell has worked in Executive Level Roles on both the client and vendor sides of lead generation, sales, and marketing. She was a Founding Director of a lead generation company that recently sold for millions of dollars and continues to advise Fortune 100 Companies as to how to build their lead generation strategies; from the lead development side to closing the sale at the call center level.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, February 9, 2011 12:30pmEST – 1:30pmEST. To register and for more information please visit: Ten Leading Strategies for Online Lead Generation

Zappos.com Delivered Happiness

Zappos.com was founded in 1999 and after encountering troubling times during their inception, later grew to be the largest online shoe store. Based in Henderson, Nevada, Zappos.com has mastered something that many companies find difficult to understand – how to make a company thrive not only from a customer perspective but also with its employees. In July 2009, Zappos.com announced its acquisition by Amazon.com in an all stock deal.

So, I was excited to read Tony Hsieh’s new book, CEO of Zappos.com, Delivering Happiness. With their vast amount of success and rapid growth, I was eager to learn what was at the root of their wild success. Delivering Happiness made #1 on The New York Times Bestseller List, and through the book Zappos.com explains why they have such a unique Company:

• Pay new employees $2,000 to quit.
• Make customer service the responsibility of the entire company, not just a department.
• Focus on company culture as the #1 priority.
• Apply research from the science of happiness to running a business.
• Help employees grow both personally and professionally.
• Seek to change the world.
• Oh, and make money too.

I found the book to be an inspirational read. Zappos.com’s success is an excellent case study. A small group of determined people were able to grow the Company to its size today because of their passion for the Company and its success. Zappos.com not only focuses on making customers happy as a priority, but also the company culture of its employees with their Core Values.

Have you read the book? If so, what did you think of it? Were you able to extract any of Zappos.com’s business findings/knowledge to apply to your business?

LivingSocial is Differentiating Itself Away from Groupon

About one month ago, I blogged about Groupon. The 'deal of the day' and group-buying phenomenon is branching to Google, which is currently testing Google Offers. In December, Amazon invested $175 into LivingSocial, bringing it's current platform to "rapid global expansion" (Mashable). Clearly, the 'deal of the day' fad isn't just a fad. It's proving to be a social media, email marketing, and crowd-sourcing savings powerhouse. At an average open rate of 66%, that is an effective email (screenwerk.com)!

Enter LivingSocial. As LivingSocial is quite similar to Groupon, it has differentiated itself by offering LivingSocial Escapes. Back in October, LivingSocial acquired Urban Escapes, a social adventure company that provided group excursions and travel packages. This is a smart move for LivingSocial, which was more or less offering the 'deal of the day' to local restaurants, spas, sporting events at a 50-70% discount.

LivingSocial Escapes offers vacation deals, and truly original 'escapes', at a deep discount. Take an adventure to Quintana Roo, Mexico for example. I get a eye-pleasing, enticing deal straight to my inbox that is half off the original price ($1,540) for a five-night stay. If I want to bring a guest, it's only $205 more. Now that's a deal.



Buyers have one week to decide, in comparison to the daily deals that expire the next day. Have you purchased a LivingSocial Escapes vacation? If so, let us know about your experience!

TrafficWave - OceanSwell TEAM Update (#69)

From the standpoint of time, Internet Marketing can be very challenging.  That's especially true if you have a full-time job, children, a home to look after, etc..  And once you start enjoying some success with your online business, it only gets worse!  Of course, you need to take breaks once in awhile - otherwise, you will get burned-out.  I've basically been on a two week 'break', though it's been more necessity than choice.  But just because life might pull you away from your online business once in awhile, it doesn't mean you have to stress out over it.  In fact, if you've got things set up right, most of it will run on autopilot anyway.  That is why if I've said it once, I've said it a million times:  your autoresponder is the foundation of everything you will do online.  It keeps working when you don't have the time to!

There are only so many hours in a day and there's only one of you.  You will drive yourself insane if you don't learn how to automate your business (or at least as much of it as possible).  Another advantage to being part of a well-branded marketing group like Team OceanSwell is that the team is working for you night and day, all year long - even when YOU have to take some time off.

The Internet isn't going anywhere and there's an infinite supply of whatever it is that you're looking for online, be it sales, new subscribers, affiliate referrals or whatever.  Just don't take on too much and push yourself too hard.  If you've made the decision to build an online business, then you simply must stand by your decision.  You could be buried in snow (as half the U.S. currently is), underwater in Australia or watching rioting mobs from your front door, like they're doing in Egypt.  It doesn't matter.  I'm going through a bit of a tough spell right now myself because of how many hours I'm being asked to work at my job.  Some weeks, it seems like I'm either at the hospital working... or I'm asleep.

My point is that life will throw all kinds of obstacles and challenges in your path.  The danger is that many of these circumstances can become heroic reasons for you to give up on your dreams.  Do you know what I mean?  "I tried, but look what I had to deal with!"  Guess what.  You have to deal with it.  Anyway, I don't want to blather on and on - but you get my point.  Everyone has problems, and that's never going to change.  Just don't let your problems become excuses that turn into dream killers.  DON'T do it.

Anyway, we actually had a decent January as far as new Team Members joining us - both in TrafficWave and Global NPN - and January's winner of the $40.00 promotional cash award is Ms. Zita Skurka (goldstarz). She is a tireless promoter and is very deserving of the cash bonus! Zita, send me your PayPal or AlertPay address and I will get your cash out to you right away!

Which Technology Would You Miss The Most?

I just returned from an amazing mini-vacation where I was literally disconnected from technology and media. Disconnected from the web. Disconnected from my phone. Disconnected from television. Disconnected from radio. I stayed at a charming guest house that had free Wifi but since the cell service was non-existent, I decided to take my vacation concept one step further. I had a technology-free vacation. No use pulling out the laptop when you're having fun skiing a mountain, relaxing in the hot tub, enjoying a home-cooked gourmet meal or drinking some top notch wine, right? It was nice to focus on people instead of being tempted by the digital screen. I think it made my time in the mountains that much more meaningful.

Here's what I noticed about the technology... I missed my mobile device connectivity the most. It was easy to stay away from the television when there were so many interesting people to chat with. It was even easier to refrain from dragging out the laptop and logging on because it seemed like such a chore after a great yoga class. What wasn't so easy was NOT picking up the HTC MyTouch to text, call or connect with friends who weren't there. I specifically missed...

• Facebook status updates and being able to upload photos to my page
• Texting or calling friends while on the mountain to coordinate a meet up (because someone, usually me, always gets separated from the group)
• FourSquare check-ins (who doesn't want to check-in on a mountain?!)
• Yelp access to check restaurant ideas for the NYC leg of my trip

So I wonder, 10 Golden Rules reader, given the same circumstances, is there a particular technology or software you think you would miss most? Share in the comments.