Online Marketing

Oh good, you found us!

If you're looking for a post that's not quite social media, not really branding, doesn't have anything to do with online reputation management and is anything but a usability issue, then it's probably located here in our general Online Marketing category.

The Online Marketing category aims to cover the "everything else" of your search marketing campaign, including press releases, link development, word of mouth advertising, traditional marketing methods and more. This category makes sure you're not forgetting about the tried and true methods for improving your rankings in the search engines. It's somewhere to turn when you need more than just the fancy and flashy stuff. You wouldn't drop your very best gal pals just because you met a new beau, would you? Okay, you probably would, but that's no way to run an Internet marketing campaign.

We're working on a host of great content to fill these walls, but until we do, we invite you to take a look at some of our favorite all-purpose online marketing blogs, including:

If you have suggestions for posts we should do or techniques you’d like to see covered, we challenge you to contact us and let us know. Or, if you want to know how Outspoken Media can help you through our Internet marketing services, contact us about that, too.

How Can I Push You From Lurker To Participant?

February 25, 2010

I left my first comment on Chris Brogan’s blog a few weeks ago. And if you want to know a secret, I was scared. Speaking up for the first time on a new community is often pretty intimidating. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been reading Chris’ blog for years, lots of us have. However, I [...]

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How Listening To Your Bubble Costs You Money

February 15, 2010

Google thought Google Buzz was a really smart idea. They thought so because Google employs geniuses and those geniuses got together to create it, test it and decide it was so. They didn’t think people would mind having all of their contacts opened up and revealed to the world. They didn’t think they’d mind [...]

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TechCrunch & The Dark Side Of Communities

February 6, 2010

Michael Arrington couldn’t care less about the TechCrunch community. And he’s not even hiding the fact anymore.
Yesterday Michael Arrington took to TechCrunch to post an apology to his readers. After an investigation, it was discovered that 17-year-old TechCrunch intern Daniel Brusilovsky accepted compensation (rumored to be in the form of a Macbook Air) in [...]

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Content is not King. Self Promotion Is.

February 3, 2010

While I was at the airport last week, Dr. Pete sent me a link to his post on SEOmoz about SEO cliques and asked for my thoughts. The post talked about the various groups that exist in SEO, how not friendly the industry can be sometimes (The Internet is mean!) and attributed ‘being loud’ [...]

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Preparing for the Age of Mobile

January 29, 2010

One thing I’ve realized while being on the road for the last two weeks has been the reliance I have had to put on my BlackBerry in order to get things done.
Searching for local restaurants, searching for directions, keeping up with the divisional playoffs for the NFL, communicating with friends, booking trying to book plane [...]

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My Work Setup At Outspoken Media

January 22, 2010

Rhea assigned me a project earlier this morning. She sent me a link to Inc’s slideshow on How to Run a Business from Home and challenged me to create my own version for Outspoken. She thought it’d be fun to share some photos and how I work out of my apartment, fighting the daily battle [...]

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Most Influential Online Marketers of 2009 FAIL

January 11, 2010

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I woke up this morning to an email from Invesp letting me know that I made their list of the Top 100 Most Influential Marketers again this year. Last year’s list (also the first) was pretty impressive. There were tons of great people on there and I felt honored to be included in the list. [...]

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What To Ask (& Avoid) When Hiring A Copywriter

January 8, 2010

As if being a blogger wasn’t thankless enough, I carry the double burden of also being in charge of content writing services for Outspoken Media. And while, I really enjoy getting to work with our clients to create content for their Web sites and giving them material that attracts visitors, engages them and helps with [...]

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Hostage Marketing: Hot New Fad For 2010?

December 9, 2009

There’s a lot of trust and permission that goes into marketing to someone. People need to trust that you’re going to be accountable for the promises that you make. They need to know that if they give you permission to opt them into your newsletter, that you’ll ONLY use their email for that purpose. They [...]

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If It’s Wet, Sticky & Not Yours…Ask

November 20, 2009

I don’t know how it works for boys, but if you’re an overly-ambitious female, you’re taught from an early age that it’s a lot easier to beg for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. It’s a small morsel shared with a knowing twinkle that gives young girls a license to be horrible. [...]

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Debunking the “Everyone Is Equal” Myth

November 4, 2009

David Spinks caught me on Twitter Friday morning and asked a question that was hard to answer on less than four hours of sleep and within the confines of 140 characters. Thanks to Twitter Search, you can watch me awkwardly try. However, the question he asked was an important one. And my inability [...]

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Dealing with Negativity Online (& in Life)

October 30, 2009

Abby Johnson from WebProNews scored a great video interview with Bloggess Jenny Lawson during BlogWorldExpo a couple weeks ago. If you haven’t watched it, you should. Not because Jenny is adorable and hilarious (though she is), but because she shares her secret for dealing with haters, trolls, and those absolutely set on trying [...]

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How Do You Like Your Email Marketing?

October 28, 2009

I used to subscribe to a lot of email newsletters. I’m forever curious and I like being informed. Problem is I never actually read most of them. They didn’t do anything for me. They’re weren’t useful, they didn’t engage me, they didn’t offer any great value, and, frankly, the content wasn’t [...]

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Sometimes Your Customers Just Want The Box

October 26, 2009

The holidays are coming! And do you know what that means?
It means you’re about to spend the next two months stressing over what to get your little one. You’re going to take that trip down memory lane to recall what you wanted at that special age. You’re going to get up early in [...]

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How To: Be A Damn Human

October 20, 2009

It’s said a lot that social media has changed business. That it’s shown us how people want things to be done. If that’s true, then it’s shown us that our customers (who are often humans) like doing business with other humans. Imagine that.
Your customers are done worshiping you. They don’t want to be [...]

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How To Promote Good Content

October 12, 2009

One of my favorite myths on the Web is that great content markets itself. It doesn’t. It didn’t back in Shakespeare’s day and it certainly doesn’t now that your customers have an entire Internet competing for ther attention. It doesn’t matter how good your content naturally is, if you don’t promote it, [...]

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Once More, With Feeling

September 25, 2009

“Talent is bein’ able to sell what you’re feeling.”
Not surprisingly, the most successful blog posts on Outspoken are the ones where you connect with me emotionally. They’re the posts written in the heat of the moment, before I’ve had time to self-edit and tame them back. They are the five minute posts where [...]

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Old School vs New School Marketing

September 17, 2009

My Dad’s birthday was last week.
Relating to my father is a lot harder than it used to be. Mostly because he has no idea what I do for a living, especially now that I do it from the comfort of my apartment. When I was still in school, he got it. He may [...]

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What Kanye & Taylor Swift Taught Us About Going Viral

September 14, 2009

We don’t trust marketing. We’ve been lied to and taken advantage of so many times that we don’t know what’s true, what’s manufactured or even who it is that’s trying to get something from us. To protect ourselves, we question everything and everyone.
Unless you spent last night in the same bubble Rae [...]

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Reasons I’ll Resent You On The Mobile Web

September 10, 2009

I travel a lot. Your customers travel a lot. We’re all on the move and thanks to the advancements made in hand-held technology we’re now able to take the Web with us. Heck, I have to practically hide Rhea’s Blackberry under the table to get her to look at me instead of her phone during [...]

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Making Lemonade Out Of Bullshit

September 4, 2009

Michael Gray sent me an article yesterday afternoon. It was from Gawker and was about all the reasons Sarah Palin needs Levi Johnston. It was about how, in all his nonsensical glory, Levi actually makes Sarah Palin more likable. Because while he’s out there whoring himself to the media and (as a teen dad) [...]

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Connect the dots

September 2, 2009

As much as we like to try, being awesome is not a business model. It’s not a business model because most companies aren’t awesome and awesome can’t be faked. The same goes for personality. Can personality work? Sure. But personality only works when it’s genuine. It works when you’re a small business bleeding for [...]

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Stop Looking For Rules. There Aren’t Any.

August 28, 2009

Two months ago (I’m guessing), I put my email address in my Twitter profile. As a result, I get a lot of email. And I’m not complaining. I enjoy getting to correspond with new friends who either follow me on Twitter or are familiar with the blog. I work out of my apartment most days [...]

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Stop Bitching. Learn to Write.

August 26, 2009

You want to dramatically increase conversions, blog subscribers, authority and your bottom line? Learn to write. Seriously. Stop bitching about why it’s not important, how your copy is “good enough”, and how the grammar snobs are just trying to “hold you down” and do it. Take a class. Hire it out. Do whatever you [...]

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What’s The Point?

August 21, 2009

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If you’re reading this, chances are you’re somehow involved in the fantastic world of internet marketing. I know the Outspoken crew draws a large audience of SEOs, affiliate marketers, and social media types, which means that you more than likely either have a large circle of influence online, or are closely connected to someone who [...]

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How to be an entrepreneur (without leaving your 9-5)

August 18, 2009

I just finished reading Lisa’s post from April, “It’s Not the Recession, You Just Suck,” and took it as a reminder to write provocative headlines. Lisa nails it when she says, “entrepreneurs are ruling this recession.” In fact, in March, 2009, The Economist put out a special report that I bought and love – the [...]

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The Authority Rules

August 5, 2009

See that over on the right? That’s Brian Clark’s new report on authority. It’s called Authority Rules. You should read it.
Authority is a funny thing because it’s something all of us want, but only a few us truly know how to obtain. Brian’s report helps the rest of us finally get a damn [...]

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In Business, It’s All A Matter of Trust

July 30, 2009

”The glue that holds all relationships together — including the relationship between the leader and the led is trust, and trust is based on integrity.” –Brian Tracy
Trust is funny. It’s one of those things you can’t ever get back once its lost. It doesn’t matter how much you sweet talk me, how pretty the [...]

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The Power of The Unexpected

July 22, 2009

Those of you who find me a bit wordy (looking at you, Whalen) are going to get a break today. I was struggling for an idea for a post all morning. Frustratingly struggling, in fact. I even called some people to vent about it. And then I came across the video embedded below via Twitter.
Watch [...]

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What To Do When Your Laptop Is Stolen

July 16, 2009

Happy Thursday, everyone!
I had a super great post all ready for you today. It was on astroturf marketing and was in response to New York being awesome and fining Lifestyle Fit $300,000 for their extravagant use of fake reviews. You probably would have loved it. It would have earned me the industry street cred [...]

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Lessons of a Reluctant Entrepreneur

June 24, 2009

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Last Friday, Rhea and I headed into Albany to attend Social Media Breakfast, a local event Rhea was speaking at alongside Mike Germano and Stuart Foster. While we were there, we met some incredible new friends. People who were excited to learn about social media and the potential benefits it could have on their [...]

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Build Brand Buzz Through Contest Marketing

June 17, 2009

Contests are sexy. They give us something we all want. Brand buzz.
Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, we want to be talked about. We want our customers to wake up thinking about us. We want to be charming, and alluring, and on the tip of their tongue. We want to get them hot [...]

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3 Ways Being Who You Are Attracts Better Customers

May 22, 2009

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I learned a few things about myself yesterday. I mean, I had a hunch about some of them, but it was nice to get the official judgment from the Internet. Here’s the final vote:

My writing sucks.
I’m not funny.
I’m a snob.
I don’t understand social media.
I’m what’s wrong with social media.
My Twitter account reeks of such [...]

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A Great Product Needs No Advertising

May 14, 2009

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Not all blogs are broken. Some still get it. They get it hard and consistently. Like Andy Sernovitz. Andy says that advertising is the price of being boring, explaining:
“…There is a direct relationship between being buzzworthy — earning word of mouth — and how much you’ll have to pay to promote yourself through paid [...]

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How Do You Manage Client Expectations?

May 12, 2009

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Today I want to talk about the C word. Clients! Mostly, how you manage their expectations, keep ‘em relaxed and what you can do to ensure that they grow up to be happy, healthy, still-paying clients at the end of their contracts. Because yes, it is up to you.
From what I can gather, [...]

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Anyone Can Be A Lucky Squirrel

April 30, 2009

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This morning Seth Godin told me and his swarms of loyal readers that we’re blind squirrels and shouldn’t bother trying to hit it big. We’re the rule, not the exception. We should expect to fail and accept that we’ll never grow up to be shiny, lucky squirrels. Seth should meet my father. [...]

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Making Negative Press, Flame Wars and Attacks Work For You

April 27, 2009

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It doesn’t matter if you’re an individual, a corporation or if you were just sitting there minding your own business, if you’re publishing content on the Web, at some point you are going to be attacked. Your words will be twisted, your integrity will be called into question, and someone will be waiting in [...]

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It’s Not the Recession, You Just Suck

April 17, 2009

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Are we really going to spend our entire Friday talking about Oprah’s caps locked Twitter debut? Or invest more time discussing Ashton Kutcher and his one million followers publicity stunt? Seriously? Do you ever think that we’re wasting far too much time on stuff that isn’t making us any money or helping anyone? And maybe [...]

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Webcast: Direct Marketing for Small Businesses

April 16, 2009

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I do a fair amount of liveblogging in my job. Okay, that’s an understatement. I do a lot of liveblogging. So as you can imagine, attending webcasts on my “day off” isn’t really something I typically do for kicks. However, yesterday’s webcast on direct marketing for small businesses was one I knew I shouldn’t [...]

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The Web Needs Journalism Programs, Not Sarah Lacy

April 9, 2009

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It’s 2009. We’ve reached an era where poverty should not exist, where every child should go to bed with a full tummy and where Sarah Lacy should not be allowed to voice an opinion. Especially when she has no experience on the topic she’s talking about.
There’s been a lot of talk about journalists over [...]

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Using Content to Sell Yourself (and your brand!)

March 30, 2009

No matter what your business, your background, your goals, or how big or small your tax return will be this year, there’s one thing that holds true for nearly every business on the entire planet – you’d rather remove your own kidney than have to write content. Even if you had to do it blindfolded, [...]

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