You’re a plumber. You want to rank #1 for ‘Seattle plumbing’. That means you have to write interesting content about plumbing, in Seattle, every 2 days, for the next year. All you can think is “Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap.” Well, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (ex-college professor) laughs at your silliness. You… Read More

I make no promises. But I suspect if you do some of this stuff, your customers will thank you. Or, they won’t notice the stuff that used to make them curse you: Make every page on your site load 1 second faster. Start by taking every image on your site and compressing it. Please. It… Read More

Internet 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.

Internet Marketing

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

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

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

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

Internet Marketing

If you want a great product, solve a problem. At least that’s what “they” tell me. So, I want to know: What’s the biggest problem you have with internet marketing? Answer this teeny little survey, and you get a chance to win one of two free sets of all of the Conversation Marketing e-books: Conversation… Read More

My latest Search Engine Land column just went live: 29 ways to speed up your web site It’s timely for me, because we just finished a review of page performance versus page speed, and found that everything—conversions, time on page, scroll depth—improves when a page loads faster. That’s obvious. But the difference is amazing: Pages… Read More

Internet Marketing

No matter why you have it, your web site needs to sell. You need to get visitors to do something, whether that something is ‘sign up’, ‘buy now’ or just ‘keep reading’. Here are 10 quick tips for copy persuades, sells and converts: Start by telling people why they should read. Marketing copywriting 101: You… Read More

I want to thank all the agencies out there who get Portent new clients. Thank you. When you promise a client you’ll send them ‘monthly reports’, and instead e-mail them something like this: You couldn’t be helping me more. Bless you. You’re totally disappointing your client, because they understand that a report is not the… Read More

Managing an internet marketing project can often feel like standing in the middle of a zoo when the monkeys finally make a break for it. Overdramatic? Perhaps, but the point remains – it’s hectic. At Portent, we have a team-based approach, which means multiple parties and timelines are in play, simultaneously. If not watched with… Read More

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.… Read More

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.

I’m speaking tomorrow at SEMPDX Searchfest. My topic: Building your search agency. I figure someone should learn from my pain. If you’re going to Searchfest tomorrow (and you should be), come up to me and say ‘hi’. I’ll even bribe you to do it: I’ll be giving out 30 copies of my book, Conversation Marketing,… Read More