From advertising to white paper syndication to voicemail, here are a few of the best marketing-related newsletter articles and blog posts from 2007 that simply didn't fit into any other category. Check out these stories from the penultimate entry in WebMarketCentral's Best of 2007 series.
AdBlock Plus Threatens the Online Revenue Model by The International Herald Tribune
What could have been the story of the year in interactive marketing turned out instead to be pretty much of a dud. Noam Cohen wrote here about AdBlock Plus, a free Firefox plug-in that "makes all commercial communication disappear. No flashing whack-a-mole banners. No highly targeted Google ads based on the search terms you've entered." It's not clear whether the idea fizzled because the program didn't always work properly or because online advertising simply isn't that all that annoying to people, but the whole short-lived uproar seemed to just disappear.
"Right or wrong, do something" by iMedia Connection
Michael Estrin writes in praise of marketing experimentation—trying out non-traditional tactics in order to break through the clutter of advertising and create positive impact for brands. Pointing out that "With average job durations of 18 months or less, chief marketing officers at major brands don't last all that long these days," Estrin argues that marketers need to break out of traditional thinking and try new approaches, such as corporate blogging, which is making "the shift from talking to consumers to speaking with customers." Quoting Tim Mapes, CMO of Delta Airlines, Estrin notes that such approaches do entail risk: "big ideas often require big failures. If you have 10 big ideas, eight of them are probably going to be absolute failures. But that's actually good. You want those failures. Only the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world actually do it. We need a lot more crazy people."
Get Your Meta On with One Dozen Metasearch Engines by SEO Scoop
DazzlinDonna reviews 12 metasearch engines—sites that compile search query results from several major search engines and combine them in one place. Her list includes established metasearch sites such as Dogpile, Excite, HotBot and Mamma as well as lesser-known but interesting entrants like Clusty, Kartoo and Myriad.
What’s the Deal with All the Boring Voicemail Greetings? by Marketing Genius
In this short but thought-provoking post, blogger Emily Bennington asks why almost everyone uses the same, obvious, boring voicemail greeting, when this could be used an opportunity for differentiation. Good question!
The ultimate guide to advanced searching within Yahoo, Google and MSN by HybridSEM
In this must-bookmark post, John Satter details advanced the advanced search qualifiers available from the major search engines, such as Google's allintext (confines the search results to pages including all the query terms you have specified in the text of your page), allintitle (shows all results containing all the query terms you specify in the title) and location (pulls only articles from the location you specified) operators. Using these qualifiers can make searching much less frustrating and more productive.
4,000 Ads a Day, And Counting by Search Insider
After establishing the problem: "the average urban dweller is exposed to between 3,000 and 5,000 advertising messages every day. That means...you’re presented with an ad every 14.4 seconds. That’s every 14.4 seconds, every minute of every day you’re alive," Gord Hotchkiss suggests a solution—cut out the middle man and have advertisers pay consumers directly for their attention. Interesting concept.
The Five Biggest White Paper Mistakes by The Content Factor
Paul McKeon details the most common mistakes made in authoring white papers, including overselling, poor formatting and lack of illustrations. A short but useful reminder, particularly for B2B technology marketers.
Previous posts in this series:
Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools
Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools
Best of 2007: News Articles on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on Google AdWords
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1)
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 2)
Best of 2007: Website Design
Best of 2007: Blogging for Business
Best of 2007: Marketing Research
Best of 2007: Interactive PR
Best of 2007: SEO Copywriting
Best of 2007: Strategy and Branding
Best of 2007: Web Analytics
Best of 2007: Web 2.0 Sites
Best of 2007: Cool Online Tools
*****
Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom
Comments