Here are the rankings for 42 Web 2.0 social tagging sites, according to Alexa. Although Alexa is notorious for its lack of precision, as documented by GigaOM , SEO Book , BloggingStocks and others, it's still useful as a rough guide to website popularity. A site ranked at 20,000 may not really be more popular than the site at spot 25,000, but it certainly gets more traffic than a site ranked at 200,000. As pointed out at PaulStamatiou.com , "While you shouldn’t quote Alexa rankings as ultimate truth, Alexa data is useful for comparing website to website, especially when those websites are in the same market (ie: Digg.com vs. Reddit.com)." Furthermore, as WebKEW , Robin Good and others have noted, "Alexa's rankings tend to be extremely accurate, especially for the top 10,000 sites." 15 of the sites listed here fall into that group. Robin Good actually places the number at as many as 50,000, which encompasses 29 of these Web 2.0 social tagging sites. So, ta...

There are several ways your business can benefit from blogging short of starting your own blog, from simply identifying and monitoring the most influential blogs in your industry, to asking bloggers to write about interesting developments at your company, to guest-blogging. But once you've made the commitment to writing your own blog, here are seven essential tools—beyond the blogging platform itself ( Blogger , TypePad , WordPress , Moveable Type , etc.)—to help promote your business blog and make it successful. Technorati Like a set of power tools for bloggers, Technorati lets you claim your blog, add tags to make it easier for people to find it, monitor your blog's popularity, place an "Add this to my Technorati favorites" Web 2.0 social tagging button, install a toolbar plug-in to tag your favorite sites/blogs, and more. Feedburner The easiest way to produce and promote an RSS feed for your blog so your fans can add your feed to their favorite RSS newsreader, MyY...

I recently caught up with Lee Smith, CEO of web marketing services firm Persuasive Brands , to talk about his views on what works in web marketing. Persuasive Brands provides web development, SEO, branding and online advertising services from the New Jersey-New York-Philadelphia area. WebMarketCentral (WMC): What did you do before Persuasive Brands? Lee Smith (LS): Prior to starting Persuasive Brands, I was the founder, President, COO and acting CEO of a leading online market research firm. In this capacity, I helped clients across all industries address their business and marketing challenges using information to help shape winning strategies and supporting tactics. I adopted this approach based upon my experience as a marketer myself developing, launching and managing international products. Many years earlier, I expanded my software development skills by attending Carnegie Mellon’s graduate business school—which was a tremendously enriching experience. WMC: How did you get starte...

On the occasion of the 101st post to this blog, here's a brief look back at the ten most trafficked posts to this point: 10) Business Blogs: PR Tool or Marketing Tool? (Nov. 30, 2006) In which the question is asked (and answered), what is the fundamental purpose of blogging for business? 9) More of the Best Website Marketing Tools (Jan. 15, 2007) More helpful tools for SEO, marketing research and blogging reviewed. 8) Backflip: A Dot-Com Survivor Story (June 29, 2005) A fascinating true-life story of Internet riches-to-rags-to-rebirth, complete with millionaires and rock stars. 7) WMC Interviews: Mike Schultz (Apr. 1, 2006) Marketing wisdom from the founder of the Wellesley-Hills Group and publisher of the RainToday professional services marketing newsletter. 6) "Guaranteed Web Traffic" - Really? (Oct. 3, 2006) The true value of "guaranteed website traffic" services exposed. ( This post tells you how to effectively do it.) 5) Web Conferencing Services Re...

Other than overflowing email inboxes, the biggest challenge for email marketers is deliverability. While ISP blocking and corporate email filters have gotten much more effective at keeping garbage about cheap pharmaceuticals, p*rn and miracle weight-loss plans out of our mailboxes (which is good), they also often over zealously block legitimate marketing emails (which is not). Here are four tips to improve the deliverability of your legitimate, opt-in email marketing newsletters and campaign blasts. 1) Run a spam check on your content before sending. There are a number of helpful, free online spam-checking tools available including tools from Lyris and Sitesell . Both give you a score and rationale for the "spamminess" of your message. 2) Be careful with subject lines and content. Spam blocking filters hate the word "free" (which is too bad because real people love it; try "no cost," "no obligation" or something similar instead) and exclamation ...