Articles by Ian Lurie

Guy Kawasaki is an egotistical jerk. That was my first impression. I was at Gnomedex a few years back. He stood up in front of the audience and said, “I’ve got lots of stuff I can talk about.” Then he presented three possibilities and let us choose. Are you kidding me? He didn’t even prepare?! [...]

OK, I have to admit: This post seemed better when I was slightly drunk and buzzed on sugar. But, I enjoy being mocked, so I’m putting it out there anyway: In a typical marketing agency, the fluffy rainbow bunnies prevail. Every idea has to get a fair shake. Every person has to get their say. [...]

‘2011 is the Year of Content!!!!’ That’s what the addled woman who smelled slightly of sour beer belched into her cell phone yesterday. We were both waiting in line to get food at the airport. She said it as if she’d just discovered the secret business success. She saved me $10, though, because when I [...]

Log files may not seem sexy. But if you want to do some better on- and offsite optimization, in less time, then you need to learn to use them. But first, a little history. My life as a college sex symbol In college and law school, I raced bikes. That’s bicycles. I sucked. And I [...]

Hootsuite just launched a new analytics tool, and it’s pretty slick. It doesn’t do anything new, but it integrates Hootsuite, Google Analytics and other data in a really elegant, white-label-able interface. Cool features include: Nice PDF report export; Basic branding: Put in your logo, contact info; Track Google Analytics against retweets; Track Facebook likes/unlikes all [...]

SEO is dead for [insert industry here]. It’s all [choose one: Black Hat SEOs, Google, Bing, gremlins]‘s fault. All SEOs are liars, so don’t listen to what they say. Don’t bother arguing, because I’m a(n) [choose one: expert, guru, god, jedi] of [choose one: business, marketing, internet marketing, SEO, spouting manure]. This post inspired by [...]

Unless you’re some huge, international conglomerate, you have cash flow problems. If you’re a huge, international conglomerate, then you’ve traded up to ‘liquidity crises’ and lay off 500 hapless employees when you’re in trouble. I don’t have experience with that. I do have experience with small agency cash flow. I guess these fit for any [...]

I want the perfect marketing dashboard. But I can never seem to find it. Here’s what it needs to look like: Why is that so hard? If I’m missing something, let me know. Other stuff 25 tips for building your own agency Trash the web sites: What Gawker Media (probably) said 11 signs you’re not [...]

Yep, I’m finally getting into the infographics game. Here’s my sketch of where most corporate internet revenue planning seems to end up: Yeah, I’m keeping the day job, don’t worry. Other stuff 25 tips for building your own agency Trash the web sites: What Gawker Media (probably) said 11 signs you’re not ready to run [...]

These are the 25 tips I gave at my SearchFest presentation today. These are from the heart, based on my own personal screw-ups over a 16-year career (so far) running my own agency. Running your own agency is like wrestling with a s–t-covered bear. You may get mauled and eaten. You may win. But at [...]