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For at least 14 years, I’ve repeated the same “mantra” for web publishers: Be relevant and useful.

That’s the answer to many “how can I” questions: Read more »

Comments Off on Unsolicited Email Marketing

I just politely ended a call from a prospective client, when the client indicated that his business acquired customers by sending them unsolicited commercial email. Read more »

Comments Off on From Idea to Product: Lots of Work

I just finished a very interesting conversation with a nice, articulate young man who had sought my marketing advice.  Unfortunately, I quickly determined that he didn’t need marketing help — he needed legal and practical advice regarding intellectual property (patent & trademark law), import/export law and practices, and business planning. Read more »

Comments Off on Intermediate Metrics

I am growing to detest intermediate metrics, which are often used in deceptive ways. Read more »

Comments Off on Discriminating Against India

While seeking techical support for Norton SystemWorks today, I was extremely annoyed to be connected several times to “chat support agents” in India who could not communicate effectively in English.  I ended up abandoning five separate “chat support sessions,” because none of the six “chat agents” seemed to understand any English.  Eventually, after wasting more than an hour, I received a return telephone call from Norton staff in India who did understand English, and we worked through my technical problems.

Which brings me to a recent question posed by a web publisher in India: “Why do merchants discriminate against Indian web publishers?” Read more »

Comments Off on “I Need a Web Site” Ads

I’ve been finding some very bizarre Craigslist ads in the “gigs” section lately.

I’m not seeking work as a programmer, web developer, or web site designer, but I often peek at some of these ads when the title seems . . . incomplete.  It’s often good for a laugh. Read more »

Comments Off on North Carolina’s Advertising-Nexus Sales Tax Law

It now appears almost certain that North Carolina will become the third state (after New York and Rhode Island) to enact a blatantly unconstitutional “Advertising-Nexus” law, attempting to force out-of-state merchants to collect sales tax if they pay in-state web publishers for advertising.  Although Amazon responded to New York’s secret, retroactive enactment of the law in 2008 by collecting sales taxes from New York residents, the laws are having perverse effects in Rhode Island and North Carolina. Read more »

Comments (1)

It’s amazing how “buzzwords” and jargon continue to drive attitudes and behavior of companies and investors. For the past year, “social media” and “social networking” have been the hot buzzwords, and everybody wants to hire marketing people with a proven track record in “social media.” The problem? Nobody has figured out a way to profit from “social media” marketing. Read more »

Comments Off on Common-Sense SEO

Search-Engine Optimization is probably the single most profitable “marketing strategy” for most e-commerce retailers. The reason is simple: if your SEO strategy works well, you’ll draw traffic and generate sales, without paying anyone for that privilege. But every day, I find retail e-commerce sites that ignore (or fail at) this critically important strategy. That’s very sad, because in my opinion, effective SEO requires very little more than common sense. (Most other marketing strategies are also more effective if the site is optimized for search engines.) Read more »