Yearly Archives: 2011
Doug Antkowiak25 Apr, 2011
Visualizing Data with Infographics
Need to explain the evolution of the internet in less than five minutes? Or maybe demonstrate an R analysis of the length of baseball games over the last 30 years? Try using an infographic. Infographics (informational graphics) are one of the best ways to display complex data or conceptual information in a quick and easy-to-read… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie22 Apr, 2011
Dan Cobley: What Physics teaches about marketing
I don’t think I’ve embedded a video by someone else on this blog in 5 years. However, this piece about marketing and physics is beyond brilliant: It defines marketing in a way that totally, completely makes sense. It’s only 7 minutes long. Watch it.
Ian Lurie20 Apr, 2011
1 tip for faster blogging: Use Textile
This is a tip that’ll either: Save you 20 minutes per blog post; or Lead to much better-looking blog posts. I write all of my blog posts using Textmate, a text editor for the Mac. I write them all using a very simple text formatting language called Textile. I recommend E-Text Editor for the same… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie19 Apr, 2011
Analytics plus SEO equals content: My Wappow presentation
Everyone’s bleating about content marketing. Content marketing this. Content marketing that. For some of us, though, content’s been around since we, well, since we learned to read. Here’s the process I’ve put together over the last ten years. I presented this at Wappow Search & Social last week. Shockingly, it involves content. And marketing. With… Read More
Ian Lurie14 Apr, 2011
Portent’s new hoodies have arrived
…and I’m damned excited. Our first legit logowear: I don’t know why I’m so excited, but somehow it makes me feel so… grown up. Gang pose courtesy of one of Portent’s fine SEO team.
Ian Lurie13 Apr, 2011
A great response, and a lesson in social media
Something a bit unusual today. On Monday I wrote 20 reasons you shouldn’t listen to a word I say. Today, I was delighted to receive a 20-item response to my 20 items from Angela Hansen. I liked it so much I asked her for permission to publish it here. And no, Angela is not giving… Read More
Jarrod Medrano13 Apr, 2011
Movies Every Internet Marketer Should See
There are some films you can go your entire life without seeing. These are not those films. If you don’t know your A,B,S from your A,B,Cs, I am here to help. Many of these movies are available on the Netflix Instant Watch, so you can pump this steaming hot knowledge directly into your nucleus accumbens.… Read More
Ian Lurie12 Apr, 2011
The internet marketer’s guide to the apocalypse
In which I wax philosophical while discussing zombies, specialization and people who reek of cigarettes. This town needs an asteroid. Marketers are specializing our industry to death. Setting the stage: Stinky cigarette guy A few years ago, a guy who reeked of cigarette smoke handed me a smudged business card. He handed it to me… Read More
Tom Schmitz12 Apr, 2011
5 Ways to Use Headings for SEO
Headings are for SEO Does your website use headings or h-tags for CSS design? It shouldn’t. Instead, reserve h-tags for outlining our document and SEO. Today the Official Google Webmaster Central Blog published this: One way Google’s algorithms determine the context of content on a page is by looking at the page’s headings. The way… Read More
Ian Lurie11 Apr, 2011
20 reasons you shouldn’t listen to a word I say
I feel strongly about full disclosure. So, here it is—20 reasons I’m full of crap: I don’t have a best selling book. Nor, at this rate, will I ever. Major marketing conferences bark with laughter when I submit a speaker’s pitch. I haven’t made $10 million. I haven’t even made $1 million. I’m just a… Read More
Analytics Ian Lurie8 Apr, 2011
Google Apps Script Tip #1: Finding the last row
I’ve been building some custom reports for Portent in Google Spreadsheets. They do fun stuff like grab Google Analytics data, insert data from other APIs and such. One thing that nearly drove me batty, though, was figuring out how to automatically add a new row below the last row with data. Turns out, Google App… Read More
Ryan Moothart8 Apr, 2011
Bid by Position Preference – Post AdWords Feature Removal
Most of the time, I love Google. But sometimes they throw a curve ball at me and make my life more difficult. On Tuesday, Google announced it’s removing the preferred position bidding feature from AdWords starting in early May and accounts can no longer begin using the feature effective immediately. And I was having such… Read More
Ian Lurie7 Apr, 2011
The Potential Misery Index: Ranking potential clients
I love my clients. Sometimes it’s hard to tell, I know. But once Portent signs on to work with someone, we’ve got one job: Help the client kick ass. We’re committed. That means we need to be pretty picky about clients and contracts. I use a special scale called the Potential Misery Index (PMI). You… Read More
Ian Lurie6 Apr, 2011
25 cringe- or shrug-worth headlines
I tell you to write clear headlines, and you don’t listen. I tell you to try the blank sheet of paper test, and you ignore me. I suggest that you write fully descriptive headlines, and you snort. Well, now you can see what happens. 25 truly screwed up, hideous headlines written by folks who didn’t… Read More
Ian Lurie5 Apr, 2011
Conversation Marketing: A definition
I’ve written 2,890 posts on Conversation Marketing now. I just crossed 10,000 (non-spam) comments, too. But I’ve never actually provided a definition of Conversation Marketing. Lots of other people have. Some did OK. Some are just ridiculous. So I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m not trying to define it in a “this is… Read More