Derbhile Graham says, “When you’re on social media, it can feel as if you’re drowning in a torrent of information. It can be hard to sift out the useful pieces of knowledge from the pictures of cats and the updates about the contents of people’s meals. Social media gurus speak of the importance of interaction, but social media can feel like... [Read more]

Jessica Celenza says, “You’ve probably heard time and time again about the concept of testing and optimization (a.k.a conversion rate optimization or CRO). But if you’re not quite sure what it means, that’s okay. Optimization refers to the process of improving your marketing efforts in order to maximize your desired business outcome. In other... [Read more]

Eric Samson says, “Global ad spending is predicted to reach reach $662.73 billion by 2018. Unfortunately, a lot of those dollars will go to waste. Marketers regularly throw away money on Super Bowl ads, promoted social media posts and bot traffic. The typical spray-and-pray approach is often utilized by brands with multi-million dollar budgets... [Read more]

Everybody needs a place to sit, a bed to sleep in and a table to eat from. That’s why all around the world, people spend billions on furniture every year. Amazon affiliate marketers like you and me can take advantage of this constant stream of traffic buying furniture to build a business selling the furniture everyone needs. The home furnishings industry... [Read more]

Kara Swisher says, “Immediately after Yahoo finally said it was going to do what everyone knew it was going to do — announce plans to spin off its remaining 15 percent stake in Alibaba, worth $39 billion — the speculation that Yahoo would become a takeover target began. “After Alibaba Spinoff, Yahoo May Become a Takeover Target” read... [Read more]

Christopher Lester says, “After surviving the competitive holiday season, many marketers could use a break. Unfortunately, new challenges come with the turn of the calendar page. Many people feel compelled to clean hypothetical house at the start of each new year—purging clutter, conquering unhealthy habits, and opting out of emails from the... [Read more]

Ginny Mrvin says, “Google says that only 1 in 5 marketers successfully completes the remarketing set up process in Google Analytics. Whether it’s tagging problems or other implementation challenges, a 20 percent success rate is a pretty good indicator that the process isn’t user friendly for most marketers. To improve that success rate, Google... [Read more]

There’s an attractive new WordPress theme that can be used in many ways, but is being targeted to small business websites and sites that collect leads for small businesses. The Metropoli Theme builds attractive sites and is easy enough to use that you don’t have to have any tech skills to make a good-looking site. If you build sites for clients,... [Read more]

Eric Devaney says, “284 million. That’s how many monthly active users Twitter has. Believe it or not, Instagram has actually surpassed Twitter with 300 million monthly active users. (For comparison, the fourth most populous country in the world, Indonesia, has a population of 255 million.) And then there’s Facebook, with 1.35 billion monthly... [Read more]

Lauren Orsini says, “Suppose the only way to get to this article—yes, the one you’re reading—was to first visit readwrite.com and then trust that you could locate it using the site’s navigation tools. Odds are good that you’d be somewhere else right now. Instead, you probably followed a link shared on Twitter, passed along in... [Read more]

Jason Abbruzzese says, “Amazon finished 2014 much stronger than some expected. The company’s Prime service grew its membership by 53% worldwide off a base of “tens of millions” in 2014. The ecommerce retailer also announced solid earnings for the end of 2014 in its fourth-quarter earnings release on Thursday, logging $0.45 per share... [Read more]

Whether online or in a live presentation, you need to keep people’s attention. Action, movement and excitement help you do that. Motion Suite Pro V.2 provides you 138 new HD Motion Backgrounds that include many different themes that you can use to enhance any rich media project, online or offline. Motion Suite Pro V.2 is compatible with your favorite... [Read more]

Graham Charlton says, “How can businesses find out that they have been penalised by Google? I’ve been asking a number of search experts for the tell-tale signs to look out for… Types of Google penalties First up, I think it’s important to distinguish between manual penalties, for which sites will recieve notification via Webmaster... [Read more]

Sean D’Souza says, “Let’s say you’re choosing between three photography courses covering similar topics. The prices are stacked like this: $200 $250 $2,000 What’s going through your mind right now? Curiosity floods your brain. Even if you’re not sure you can afford the $2,000 course, you want to know why it’s so expensive, compared... [Read more]

Michael Cottam says, “This is a story about Panda, customer service, and differentiating your store from others selling the same products. Many e-commerce websites get the descriptions, specifications, and imagery for products they sell from feeds or databases provided by the manufacturers. The manufacturers might like this, as they control how... [Read more]

Peter Beattie is releasing his latest templates for marketing videos, 'Instant Video Templates V5'. These are the best and most diverse templates he ever released, and he has included 18 templates in his package, more than he included in his first 4 packages... [Read more]

Allison Howen says, “Snapchat made a major move this week with the launch of a new feature called “Discover.” With Discover, users are able to find Stories from a variety of editorial teams, such as CNN, Comedy Central and Food Network. According to Snapchat’s announcement, Discover is the result of a collaboration with media partners to... [Read more]

Greg Sterling says, “Foursquare Tips meet Facebook Place Tips. Today Facebook introduced Place Tips, which offer a range of content, information and recommendations about places in the real world. The value is obvious. As with Foursquare Tips, Facebook Place Tips offer advice and information from the location’s Facebook Page and from people... [Read more]

Siobhán McGinty says, “According to retargeting platform AdRoll, only 2% of shoppers typically convert on their first visit to an online store. That’s a lot of people slipping through the cracks. What’s a marketer to do? Enter retargeting. Retargeting allows you to zero in on those 98% of visitors, giving them a second (and in... [Read more]

Coach Comeback is offering you a new take on Facebook marketing, one that he says will work better than what you have tried before, and has the advantage of being free. He calls it 'FB Freak'... [Read more]

JP Mangalindan says, “Love it or loathe it, Facebook is as integral to our day-to-day lives as checking email or texting that special someone. And in case there was any doubt, the social network unleashed new data on Wednesday to prove it. Nearly 1.4 billion people around the world use Facebook every month. Some 890 million people visit it daily... [Read more]

David Moth says, “Mobile and desktop paid search ads vary wildly in terms of the use case and the UX. Fewer ads are displayed on the mobile screen and advertisers have less copy to work with. Mobile searchers are also in a different frame of mind. They’re more likely to know what they want and are ready to take action rather than browsing. Research... [Read more]

Rob Biederman says, “If only half of startups survive more than five years and only one-third make it to 10, what’s the one thing you could do to ensure your company is sustainable? The answer is to create a growth strategy for your business, of course. A growth strategy involves more than simply envisioning long-term success. If you don’t... [Read more]

Walt Bayliss has just released the latest version of his video software, 'Hydravid 2.0 Video Marketing Software'. You may have seen earlier versions of this software, but check into what this latest version can do for you... [Read more]

Ayaz Nanji says, “The most popular days and times that brands post content to various marketing channels aren’t necessarily the most effective, according to a series of reports from TrackMaven. The data came from a research series released last year by TrackMaven, including a Twitter report (based on 1.7 million tweets from 1,423 brand... [Read more]

Mike Kunke says, “Sales process and sales methodology are written about frequently. When I talk to leaders, both inside and outside the sales function, I still hear a lot of confusion on these topics. Why the confusion about sales methodology, you ask? I think there are two primary reasons. One reason is the confusion caused by some overlapping... [Read more]

JP Mangalindan says, “Tumblr began rolling out a major update on Wednesday that makes it more appealing to serious writers. While the blogging service remains hugely popular, with 420 million active users and 220 million blogs, many of its posts are only bits of text and media — abbreviated flotsam and jetsam — including celebrity quotes,... [Read more]