Recent Internet Marketing Articles for 7 Feb, 2012, Annotated Links Dr. Ralph F. Wilson , Web Marketing Today - Feb 7, 2012

I found more "newsy" articles and fewer instructive, hands-on articles this week. But some of these are quite helpful.

Rick Gardiner, 5 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Affiliate Program Today, Marketing Land, 3 Feb 2011. Suggests merchants with affiliate programs: e-mail and poll your affiliates, audit creatives and links, add a personal touch to communications, and do something special for your affiliates.

Eric Ward, Link for People, Not Search Engines, Search Engine Watch, 1 Feb 2012. Gives historical perspective to demonstrate that linking only for search engines loses effectiveness.

Jason Tabeling, 3 Keys to Optimizing Your PPC Campaign Structure, Search Engine Watch, 31 Jan 2012. Offers tips to improve (1) relevancy, (2) budget control, and (3) targeting.

Sean Carton, 8 Obstacles That Ad-Supported E-Publishing Must Overcome, ClickZ, 30 Jan 2011. Though 1 in 3 American adults owning a e-reader device or pad, obstacles remain to effective e-publishing. The author discusses the need for a standardized e-book format, built-in advertising, less expensive distribution, e-pub pricing, social features, built-in e-commerce, advantages of the medium, and creative distribution.

Gabe Bertot, Going Mobile and 5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Use Transcoders, ClickZ, 3 Feb 2012. Transcoding -- adapting existing webpages to provide a mobile experience that works across many devices -- is fairly low cost, but has problems: (1) The mobile solution is a subset of an existing website, (2) a proprietary transcoding technology won't let you integrate with other platforms, (3) there are some unseen costs, (4) user experience, aesthetics, and performance will be less than optimal, and (5) transcoding is only a temporary patch.

Gareth Davies, 9 ecommerce mistakes and how to avoid them, Wordtracker blog, 1 Feb 2012. E-commerce sites need to address their true audience, customers' screen resolution, super menus, grid pages, pop-ups, newbie customers, showing progress, and interruptions.