America's Best Business Practices

It is interesting to see this marketing approach formalized in this way. We are a marketing & advertising company and are conducting our first paid Forum & Blog marketing trial on behalf of a new client. I am interested to see how this venue works in comparison to two other more “traditional” online test channels we are also testing (PPC and e-mail blasting). Does anyone on this thread have any experience with this or tips to share?

Tresa, I have blogged about both of these topics:
Pay-Per-Click Advertising: http://bit.ly/28nY5A
Email Marketing & Autoresponders: http://bit.ly/3g0gQL

I hope these are helpful to you.

Mike

Very informative post! And in keeping with your advice I will pass along links to both my social media blog: http://geekgal-yvette.blogspot.com and my QA Management blog: http://yvettefrancino.wordpress.com.

I’ll also spread the word about your blog through Twitter and adding this blog to my Social Media blog roll and it looks like it had a lot of other very informative posts!

Thanks!
Yvette

I have been learning that leaving comments is really one of the most effective ways to create your online presence. It also fulfills the real intent of blogging, which is to create a conversation, not just present an idea. As someone recently mentioned, a blogger who turns off their comments is either arrogant or insecure. Or maybe both. But what they don’t get is the vast opportunity for the exchange of ideas and perspectives which is creating a global community that will serve us well in the future.

Leaving comments is a good way to drive some traffic but to leave a “copy and paste” message, even personalized, defeats an important benefit of Web 2.0 – collaboration. If we’re going to elevate our collective knowledge and creativity it’s important to deliver value to a discussion. In return we may not only generate traffic back to our websites we’ll have sparked new thinking.

Morry, I agree with your point completely.

However, not everyone has the time to write everything from scratch. When you consider the time invested in all of the other elements on my graphic above (many more important than this element), you either have to pay someone to do some of this or find some shortcuts. I know first hand that this is true.

I submit to you that it is better to copy, paste and customize than not do at all because you don’t have the time. If you have the time, I agree with your point totally.

Hi Mike. Thanks for another thoughtful article. I'm enjoying this series.

I've made a lot of connections (and generated some traffic) through participation on groups and forums. I do not agree with your "three to four comments a day" advice (and certainly not with the with pre-written message approach). This may work for Web 2.0 search precepts, but at least in the equine field, such a practice will not build credibility on the forums – it will get you labeled as a self-absorbed, out-of-touch or a spammer. There's a lot of cross-participation in these lists and you'll get called out if you leave a similar message on various forums, particularly if you're broadcasting three to four times a day. In my experience, you have to work with the culture of the group to gain any traction, and that requires participation. Of course, I also tend to target smaller groups (2000 and less), as I've found these to be better networking forums, so this may not apply to some of the very large sites.

Nanette

I agree with your point Nanette. In a small group credibility is everything. And becoming actively involved in discussions is always the best way.

However, if you are using many of the Web 2.0 elements, there just is not enough hours in the day and you need to find whatever shortcuts you can find. Yet, if what you are doing destroys your credibility, it can be more harmful than helpful. So I think each individual will have to decide What will work for them.

Thanks for commenting.

Just brushing up on the latest Web 2.0 design guidelines. Lots of white space, light colors and big images, call to actions etc. Updating my xhtml knowledge, seems like html is out for good. Webpages are passé it seems, what with all the mobile apps and social networking sites. Seems I’m always running to catch up.

In Web Design it is imperative to stay abreast of the latest styles and color palettes. So research, research, research. After that practice, practice, practice. The more you design, the easier it gets. Use good clean images. Images with dramatic angles and colors. Arrange your color distribution around it. Use gradients and bright colors wisely to draw attention to the main topics. Try to present the text in an interesting manner. 3D effects look glossy and rich use them for buttons and to highlight salient points. Use interesting animations wisely and brush up on your javascript skills. Javascript files should be as small and simple as possible. Using pages and pages of JavaScript causes conflicts, especially if there are Body onLoad() functions. Use Flash animations and slideshow to animate your websites.

I am very happy to read this. This is the type of manual that needs to be given and not the random
misinformation that’s at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.