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SEM for SMB conference. I'm pleased because I love small business.

I love small  business because they are so very aware of what's important to their business, and usually act accordingly. When a small or medium-sized business understands how things work, they put them to work in their business.

Unfortunately, search engine marketing (SEM) is an allusive set of practices for many businesses. This is doubly unfortunate because search can be such an equalizer against larger competition.

Now, there's ...

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For most marketing departments, conversion is a metric. For this company it is a discipline worthy of a director level position. In creating the ...

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When it comes to the Web, things can seem very complicated to marketing teams and business owners.

a workshop that will help marketers and business owners figure out what kind of Web site they need for their business and then which three strategies they need to get right.

I can already hear you yawning. But, as an online marketing guy, I need to know more about the moving parts of this social strategy.

Plus, I had an idea that needed to be implemented. I'm actually very proud of it.

I want to start by talk about what I'm learning, not what the application does. Bear with me (or scroll down) to learn what the application is about.

Those who have implemented successful Facebook applications will tell me that I've already committed a couple of enormous errors that will doom the application to failure.

First, I'm ...

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This is a hilarious riff on the bad decisions business managers make when they do their own Web design (or let their Web developer do it). It starts off funny enough.

The first product advertised is "Make My Logo Bigger Cream." Spray it on any Web site or ad and your Logo becomes the major visible feature -- instantly!

On the Web, business managers apply this same concept to copy. The result is Web sites that talk about the company and its solutions ...

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Am I a marketing sheep? 261 Questions

They're offering a private beta that is free, if you can get in.

Those of us who want to get an early taste of the service are paying for admittance. We're paying with our connections, with our links, and with our opinion.

I hope Xobni the application is as smart.

At this point, I'm not a Xobni ...

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If you don't get to this content before March 26, signup for a MarketingSherpa trial to get this case study on Personas.

case study from H20+, Sherpa give us seven steps for creating and using Personas. I wanted to weigh in.

1. Start with what you know

The beauty of personas is that, by developing them, you are really just organizing what you already know about your customers and Web visitors.

2. Talk to people who interact with your customers

The case study calls out customer service reps, sales ...

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If you're in the Austin area in March, you have two opportunities to catch my presentation Conversion: The most important word for online businesses.

Tonight, March 18, I'll be presenting at a meeting of the Bootstrap Network at 6:30pm. The meeting will be held at Cafe Caffeine (click for map).

261 Questions

"Yes. Absolutely," he said with some aplomb, yet his head shook back and forth tightly as he spoke the words. Immediately, I felt a twinge of concern that I hadn't been heard or understood. I wanted him to get my point. I felt strongly about it. His mouth spoke the words I wanted to hear. His head signaled something different.

Either he wasn't listening or he was thinking something more than his words communicated. Maybe he was tired of listening to me. In the parlance of Tom Wanek, this was counter-signaling. I recently saw Tom's presentation at the Wizard Academy on Signaling Theory. ...

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