In internet marketing, your top priorities are, in this order: Appeal. A desirable product. Quality. A product that doesn’t suck once people have it. Visibility. People have to find you when they need you. Stability. Your web site has to work. Ease of use. Make your site so easy to use, a brain-dead zombie could [...]

This blog post is based on yesterday’s content strategies session at MozCon. If you missed it, or wanted a refresher, give this a read: A quick preview This post is huge. So, here’s a quick preview: The problem. In content creation, you can’t do the minimum required work any more. There is no ‘minimum’. Changes [...]

A lot of Portent-ites helped me write this. They submitted their ideas. I added the attitude. So please don’t blame them if this is obnoxious. It’s allll me. You’re too busy. Nothing works. Everything takes too long. You can’t get anything done. There are too many distractions. Your boss is a jerk with ridiculous expectations. [...]

Bonus tip: Learning the difference between “Chile” and “Chili” is really helpful. A little semi-random Wednesday thinking: Always ready our analytics reports. Understand them. Demand that someone make you understand them. Making business decisions without that knowledge will probably kill your company. Never buy a product with ‘Crusher’, ‘Disintegrator’ or ‘Miracle’ in the name. Anything [...]

People buy pleasure, not prevention. I know, deep for a Friday afternoon. It’s a rule that’s helped me sell for years, though. Try it on for size: Bike helmets and prevention: A marketing failure It’s hard to scare people into buying something. When I was in law school, I worked in a bicycle shop that [...]

AppSumo has taken a real liking to Portent’s e-books. Today, they’re offering all of our e-books: Conversation Marketing The SEO CopyWriting e-book The Fat-Free Guide to Google Analytics PPC for Small Business (a two-book series) For a total of $25. You can get it here: AppSumo Online Marketing eBook Bundle Posting later today: 10 things [...]

On my vacation last week, I got to go sailing. I’ve sailed since I was 12. In the last 15 years, I’ve only gotten to do it every 2-3 years, at best, but I at least know my port from starboard. I sailed a boat called a Hobie Wave: We nearly ended up having a [...]

Ian’s on vacation this week, to a place with little or no internet and he asked for a volunteer to do a CM post and to have “fun” if so warranted. Well, it’s warranted. And I am leaving the country while he’s gone and not coming back for a couple of weeks after he gets [...]

Just got my first-ever article published on Smashing Magazine: Getting Started With Defensive Design. Anyone who’s read this blog for a while knows I obsess about good web defensive design. I’m really excited that SmashingMag accepted this article. The folks there put in a ton of time helping me get the article ship-shape, and put [...]

This is a rewrite of an old, old bit I wrote on the Portent web site way back when. It’s not the same. Nor are my feelings on the subject. The best internet marketing campaigns are the ones you don’t notice—they just do their job, delivering the stuff you need to your screen, when you [...]