Yearly Archives: 2012
Design & Development R.J. LaCount11 Apr, 2012
GIFs, JPGs and PNGs, Oh My!
Every time I receive a logo in JPG format, a little part of me dies inside. Actually, it’s a big part of me, because choosing the right file type for images is an essential part of good web design. Did you know that JPG images lose quality every time you re-save them? PNG and GIF… Read More
Social Media Bryden McGrath9 Apr, 2012
How to Upload More Original Content to Pinterest: Pins for 31 Categories
By now, we all know Pinterest is the “latest,” “greatest” and “hottest” social network out there. Pinterest boasts some eye-popping statistics, like the fact that it passed Twitter in referrals and broke into the top 30 US sites in terms of pageviews in February. Still, the hullabaloo over copyright issues has scared some users away. Pin It Terms… Read More
Random Ian Lurie8 Apr, 2012
On Techcrunch: How the IPO Ruined Google
OK, I don’t think Google is ruined, but it sure seems like they’ve become increasingly weird since their big IPO. I wrote a piece about it, and it just went live on Techcrunch. Read it here.
SEO David Portney5 Apr, 2012
SEO is Dead: A Fun Romp through the “Death of SEO” Graveyard
Pin It “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” -Mark Twain It’s been said that SEO is dead. It’s been said a lot, actually. But no, this is not another dumb, disguised, fake controversy “death of SEO” linkbait article. No. This is a fun, full-disclosure, zero-controversy death of SEO linkbait article. Now that you’re done… Read More
Analytics Michael Wiegand5 Apr, 2012
The Perfect Google Analytics Dashboard
Building dashboards is a big to-do for any marketing professional. The temptation is to cram it full of juicy data and a novel worth of narrative explaining said data. Well, you shouldn’t. Trust me. There is such a thing as the perfect dashboard. And I’ve already built it for you. The Anatomy of the Perfect… Read More
Random Ian Lurie3 Apr, 2012
4 ways clients are like cats
First off, I’m a cat person. I want to make that perfectly clear. It’s a high honor if I compare you to a cat. So saying a marketing agency’s clients are like cats is very favorable. In Portent’s proposals I compare my employees to rats. So really, clients are coming out way ahead. A quick… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie2 Apr, 2012
The big merger
No, Portent didn’t merge with another company. But we just finished merging my blog, Conversation Marketing, into the Portent web site. From now on, you can find all the same stuff I used to write on Conversation Marketing here, instead. Why’d I do it? Let me count the reasons: The rest of the team at… Read More
Doug Antkowiak29 Mar, 2012
Facebook is Watching You
A post in the Subreddit r/Facebook on Wednesday claims to show you how to identify people you don’t know who view your profile. It raises a serious question: Is Facebook recording every move you make on the social network? How would you feel if you knew if Facebook recorded your name, location, action and time… Read More
Doug Antkowiak29 Mar, 2012
You’ll “Like” Our Facebook Timeline Guide
As Facebook upgrades all business pages to Timeline on March 30, 2012, we wanted to make a living infographic of the new Facebook Timeline design to help everyone make the change. Portent’s Timeline Dimensions page on Facebook displays best practices for the Facebook Timeline cover photo dimensions, profile and photo dimensions as well as custom… Read More
Random Ian Lurie28 Mar, 2012
Tomorrow’s free webinar: “Advanced” link building
Tomorrow I’ll be talking about ‘advanced’ link building. The term drives me insane, since most folks use ‘advanced’ to mean ‘I give you lots of advice, but I do not add any links.’ So, I’ll go over real-life advice for building links, including some fairly geeky stuff, like: Log file analysis Using Google Webmaster Tools… Read More
Ian Lurie26 Mar, 2012
Information vs. Knowledge, Part 2
It’s a lot harder to impart knowledge than to pass information. But it’s also worth it, because knowledge sticks. Why does application teach better than rote memorization? Hmmm let’s think. Oh yeah—because application creates knowledge, which quickly remaps neural pathways. Memorization sends us into an information-overload daze, which leads to sad, lonely little neurons. If… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie22 Mar, 2012
Information is free. Knowledge is not.
In business, everyone keeps confusing information with knowledge. They’re different. Even the dictionary says so: Information: Facts provided or learned about something or someone. Knowledge: Information and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. Information is ones and zeros. It’s raw data, or a list of facts. It’s… Read More
Social Media Bryden McGrath21 Mar, 2012
44 Ways ‘The Hunger Games’ Social Media Campaign Increased the Movie’s Odds of Success
In Suzanne Collins’ post-apocalyptic young adult novel The Hunger Games, 16-year-old Katniss Everdeen finds herself in a televised fight to the death with other teenagers. If she’s to survive, she’ll need some luck. But when it came to making sure the $75 million Hollywood adaptation would be a success, Lionsgate knew luck wasn’t something they could… Read More
Ryan Moothart19 Mar, 2012
Microsoft adCenter’s Illogical Ad Position Calculations
Not too long ago, Bing introduced text ads appearing at the bottom of the search results page in addition to the top and along the right side. However, what you may not know is that these ads can be duplicates with different ad positions. Yes – the same exact ads on a single results page… Read More
PPC Elizabeth Marsten15 Mar, 2012
The AdWords Manual Review
If you’re not familiar with the exciting adventure that is an AdWords Manual Review, heed my warning. It’s one of those clauses they hide in the terms and conditions and has little to no flexibility on either scheduling one or finding out more about them- like why your account was flagged in the first place.… Read More