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Recent Articles on Internet Marketing for July 20th Dr. Ralph F. Wilson , Web Marketing Today - Jul 20, 2010

Here are a few recent articles and resources I've found last week that might interest you.

Tony Kontzer, Ten Habits of Bad Web Design, Baseline Magazine, 15 July 2010. Some of these bad habits include shouting, runaway text, drop-down debacles, clutter, and unfriendliness.

Siddharth Shah, The Subtle Science Of Bidding Part 2: Brand Keyword Management, Search Engine Land, 16 July 2010. Explains why staying in position #1 can be expensive, since search engines want to experiment with other advertisers at this position to refine quality score estimates.

Kim Krause Berg, Site Navigation & Information Architecture Fundamentals For SEOs, Search Engine Land, 16 July 2010. Discusses navigation factors including mental models, mechanics, taxonomies and ontologies, context, organization, and findability.

Adam Audette, Enterprise SEO Tools, Part 2: The Cloud, Search Engine Land, 16 July 2010. Surveys link research tools, SEO diagnostics, and competitive insight tools.

Heidi Cohen, 7 Ways to Use Social Media to Promote Marketing Events, ClickZ, 12 July 2010. Discusses 7 reasons to ad events to your marketing mix, 7 types of events, 7 ways to use social media to promote your events, and 7 metrics to track event success.

Mike Hotz, Engagement Is Important, But What Does It Mean? ClickZ, 14 July 2010. To get your e-mails read you need to engage your readers. You have to anticipate and answer your readers' question: "What's in it for me?" To create engaging content: educate your subscribers, keep it simple, offer strong value, and segment for success. Measure open rate and click-through rate.

Andrew Goodman, The Google AdWords 'Tourist Tax', ClickZ, 16 July 2010. Newbies pay more because they don't know the tricks of the PPC trade. Seasoned advertisers, on the other hand, exhibit 5 traits. They: avoid high price ads, gain organizational buy-in for appropriate paid search bid rates, stay the course, balance ROI with quality score, and reject some Google advice.

Eric Papczun, The Four Pillars of Viral Videos, Search Engine Land, 15 July 2010. Going viral takes one or more of these factors: shock and awe, respecting the audience, finding the right balance, and promoting with honesty.

Ashley Minor, 4 Tips To Make Content Network Advertising Work, Search Engine Land, 14 July 2010.  Marketers used to ignore Google AdWords' "content network." But you can benefit if you're willing to experiment. Suggests: (1) use many ad groups and build themes, (2) create specific keywords, (3) implement tracking to better optimize performance, and (4) cast a wide net, then refine.

Eric Ward, 5 Things Google's Latest Patent Tells Me About Links, Search Engine Land, 13 July 2010. (1) The earlier in the content the link appears, the better. (2) Keyword-based anchor text doesn't necessarily make a link more valuable. (3) Color of the link matters. (4) User behavior and interaction matter. (5) The value of a link is independent of the type of document within which it is found.

Alexander Kesler, Top Web Site Design and Analytics Mistakes -- And How to Avoid Them, Chief Marketer, 30 June 2010. (1) Too few or incorrectly placed conversion points. (2) Choosing design over usability. (3) Not using Web analytics.