Yearly Archives: 2009
Copywriting Ian Lurie8 Sep, 2009
5 sources of content you didn’t know you had
Content. I’m always harassing my clients to produce more content. It’s essential to good SEO and delivers value for visitors. It’s a pain in the neck to create new content. But chances are, you’ve got lots of great stuff already. 1. Your local stores If you have local stores or independent retailers who sell your… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie7 Sep, 2009
17 Internet marketing disasters, and how to prepare for them
I am not an optimistic person. So, I spend lot of time sitting around planning for whatever catastrophes might strike me and my clients as we carry out marketing campaigns. Here’s a short list (yes, this is the short list) of the worst calamities and how I try to prevent them, or deal with them… Read More
SEO Ian Lurie4 Sep, 2009
SEO 101: Does the Description Tag Matter?
Short answer: Not to your rankings. The description tag is one of those ‘meta’ tags you hear about a lot. If you clicked view >> source in your web browser, it’d look like this: It’s a bit of text that summarizes the page. There’s no real limit on length. Most search engines will show the… Read More
Ian Lurie3 Sep, 2009
Legal Implications of Social Media: Attribution
Everyone else can debate the merits, the ROI etc. until they’re blue in the face. The truth is, social media or whatever you call it is a great tool. But there are considerable legal implications. Don’t let the implications stop you. Do be mindful: Social media muddies attribution: It’s increasingly hard to judge just who’s… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten2 Sep, 2009
Did Google Earn the Fail Badge or did the Advertiser?
Periodically you’ll see a post where someone has collected “epic fail” (and not just on the Fail Blog) screenshots of ads gone wrong. The serious plane crash news article next to the banner ad for discount tickets on the same airline that crashed. The diet pill flash banner across a forum for recovering anorexics. A… Read More
Tom Schmitz1 Sep, 2009
Write Short Simple Obvious Story Titles
Keep your titles short, simple and obvious. Look at the image below. It’s a partial screenshot of my RSS reader. This is your space to hook me. If you don’t, I’m not opening your story. I have 241 unread items. I don’t have time to read them all so I’ll pick and choose based on… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie31 Aug, 2009
Title tags, text and images, Oh My! This week’s video site review
Evan Fishkin joined me today to review SilverArcSearchMarketing.com. Our big pointers: Cleaner title tags, better image compression and some work on internal site linking. Title tags and graphics and text, Oh My! Review of Silver Arch Search Marketing from ian lurie on Vimeo.
Ian Lurie28 Aug, 2009
eBoot Camp Book Review: It Ain’t Pretty
In spite of my occasional tirade, I’m actually a fairly nice guy. If I read a book I don’t like, I just don’t write about it. However, if I read a book that misinforms, is poorly researched and may harm the readers’ businesses, I get angry. Unfortunately, eBoot Camp falls into the latter category. And… Read More
Ian Lurie27 Aug, 2009
Resources beat Knowledge: A survey of marketing gurus
Our resources are our network, research skills, intelligence and ability to communicate. Our knowledge is the stuff we already know. Resources crush knowledge, every time. Why, Ian, why? Here’s why I’m writing like I’m in a philosophy survey course: Several times in the last year, I’ve gone to Twitter, Facebook and such to get input… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie26 Aug, 2009
18 ways to kick your competitor’s ass, online
I’ve tried nice, mild titles like ‘techniques for better internet marketing’. Figured this might grab folks’ attention a little more effectively. Let’s face it: We all want to kick our competitors’ collective asses. I’ve never met a competing CEO who I didn’t like. Yet I still want to make them cry like little babies, “Stop… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie24 Aug, 2009
7 SEO Myths Dispelled
Time to explode a few more SEO myths. I’ve done it before, in case you want to see this blog’s entire colorful history. Here are a few more things I hear about SEO that are utter bunk: 1: Black Hat SEOs are Unethical BZZZZZZZZ. You’re out. Black hat SEOs find loopholes in search algorithms and… Read More
Random Ian Lurie21 Aug, 2009
7 TV Shows I Watch
Buh?… Ian’s writing about TV? What the heck? Here’s the deal: It’s Friday. It’s 6:15. I’ve been up since 5 AM. I went to bed last night at 2 AM after wrestling with WordPress for 8 hours straight (I won. HAH.). So, I’m in the mood to mix things up a little. The TV shows… Read More
Random Ian Lurie19 Aug, 2009
SES San Jose Interview, Part 1
Gregg Makuch of Enquisite interviewed Dana Lookadoo and myself on the first day of SES. Watch through to the end for a True Ian Moment: name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”>src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/GdTL8zdtHNo&hl=en&fs=1&” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″>
Ian Lurie18 Aug, 2009
How To: Ask A Blogger For A Review
A review from an ‘a-list’ blogger, or even a ‘z-list’ blogger, can bring you customers, prompt discussion around your product and, at a minimum, create a nice, authoritative link. That causes a lot of folks to ‘write’ (I use the term advisedly) wonderful notes like this one: Dear blogger, Love your blog! If you have… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie17 Aug, 2009
Video Site Review 1: Improve Subscription Rates
Just recorded our first video site review. This one’s American Parkour. Biggest problem on the site: No clear subscription model. You can subscribe for newsletters, etc., but they’re not front-and-center. And this site’s subscription list is clearly the biggest asset they can have. So, here’s the video: Tips for American Parkour to improve their online… Read More