Imagine this ad on a billboard:
“If you feel like the bottom’s fallen out of your world, digest Brand X laxative - It will make the world fall out of your bottom.”
It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?
Last week was full of marketing-related happenings that could make you laugh or cry - your choice.
Your Weekly Marketing Skinny
From TrafficGenerationCafe.com
Just in case you were too busy working on your own business instead of religiously reading Traffic Generation Cafe (gasp!), let’s play catch-up:
- 10 Killer Tips on How to Get More Facebook Fans James Bond Style - killer tips for killer results. Warning: don’t click on this link if you want a quick fix.
- Best Affiliate Marketing Programs that Pay - Finding best affiliate marketing programs that pay is half of making money online battle. What works for top affiliate marketers, won’t work for you.
Well, it will be anyway; as of July 1, 2013 to be more precise.
This is the part where tens of thousands of people are running around screaming “The sky is a-falling!”
If you feel like being one of them, here’s something to make you feel like you have a say in the matter: sign this petition to keep Google Reader running.
Just don’t hold your breath that this petition, despite passing 100K signature mark, will change the world.
If you have better things to do, it’s time to look into alternatives.
Thankfully, they are plentiful:
Share this valuable content with your readers; embed the presentation on your blog (just copy and paste the code below):
Also, take a look at Kristi Hines’ post to see 3 Google Reader alternatives in action:
Google Alerts next?
Just a wild guess.
I haven’t been using Google Alerts for months now - the only alert I was ever alerted on by Google Alerts was the alert of newly published posts at Traffic Generation Café.
And I am not the only one; Danny Sullivan was complaining about his Google Alert problems as well.
Instead, I’ve been using IceRocket.com in conjunction with Google Reader - a strategy I will apparently have to rethink.
Google Glass banned from a Seattle bar.
Yep, Sergey Brin was kicked out of a Seattle bar because he was wearing his Google Glass.
In case you don’t know, Google Glass is the Android-powered augmented reality device that, among other features, allows wearers to take pictures of what they’re looking at merely by talking to their “stunna shades”.
For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses.
And ass kickings will be encouraged for violators.
SEO
Google posted the official one page Google SEO cheat sheet designed to dumb down webmaster and SEO related techniques.
Just in case, you don’t know anything about SEO, this won’t help much.
You can download yours right here.
Panda #25 update?
There are many webmasters and SEOs believing right now that Google has released an update to their Panda algorithm late Thursday.
Google didn’t confirm it and even said that they are unlikely to confirm future Panda updates since Panda will be incorporated into their indexing processes.
(source)
Penguin 4 is on its way.
Matt said his team is currently working on it and this will be a big change to how Penguin works.
So when it is released, sometime in 2013, I assume sooner than later, this will send some ripples through the SEO space.
Social Media
Twitter now supports line breaks.
#Hashtags are coming to Facebook
Facebook just got a lot cooler - imho
Where was this feature hiding all this time???
Prefer to speak English (Upside Down)?
Facebook’s got you covered.
Prefer to speak English (Pirate)?
Facebook’s got your back.
You can find this fabulously time-waster under “General Account Settings”.
Pinterest has rolled out web analytics.
Here’s how can you get your hands on this new Pinterest data:
How Users Can Get Access To Pinterest Analytics For A Website
Revised FTC Disclosure Guidelines
On a more serious matter: FTC revised their mandatory disclosure guidelines.
You can download and read the full guidance here.
It mostly deals with the expanding use of smartphones with small screens and the rise of social media marketing.
It also contains mock ads that illustrate the updated principles.
The guidelines also take aim at bloggers who provide information or reviews in exchange for products or services.
In one example, the FTC shows a blog post about house paint in which the writer states at the end that she received a free can of paint.
According to the agency, such disclosures must be clear and conspicuous and not tucked away after a series of links or other distractions.
In Case You Are 1/24th Irish
In the spirit of St. Patrick’s day that we’ll be celebrating in the U.S. tomorrow (Sunday):
Genealogy Insider has a roundup of Irish genealogy Web sites.
Marketing Takeaway
Well, this wasn’t that bad, was it?
Now that you are properly updated on the latest marketing happenings, the only thing left to do is to share the ish out of this post for me.
Would you do that for me before you run off to enjoy your weekend?
Thank you!
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