What’s On My Mind
Hey Business Owners, Track Your Sh*t or Die
If you’re a business owner and you’re not accurately tracking your advertising and marketing, you’re playing a game of Russian roulette. The long term odds of business success are NOT in your favor. Ten years ago, I could understand it. Back then, ad tracking was difficult, expensive, and not all that accurate. Today, there are…
Custom Websites Are Like Custom Cars
Recently, someone remarked to me that many of the websites Blue Corona builds look fairly similar. The same person then asked, “don’t you build any truly custom websites—websites that look totally unique?” I thought about it for a second and said, “No, not really. The layouts of our sites are similar for the same reason…
What’s the Value of Traditional Advertising?
As the president of an internet marketing company, I’m not a big fan of many “traditional” advertising strategies. In fact, I think John Wannamaker was smoking crack, or whatever they had back then, when he hypothesized that half his advertising was a waste. The reality is, he was probably wasting more like 70-80 percent of…
Which Type of Company Are You Running?
Recently, I read an amazing article in the Washingtonian about an amazing, but reclusive DC chef, Johnny Monis. The article reminded me of a business truth that is simple, yet often overlooked. There are two types of companies—those run by artists and everyone else. Let me explain … Monis opened Komi when he was just…
Inbound Marketing Success Means Being Remarkable
In 2007, virtually no one knew or was familiar with the phrase “inbound marketing.” In the wake of INBOUND12, the conference for the inbound marketing industry, it’s become a buzzword. My guess is that usage of the term is going to skyrocket over the next 2-3 years. A quick look at Google Trends confirms that…
Inbound 2012, HubSpot3 & Lessons Learned
Right now I’m in Boston, MA for Inbound 2012 (#INBOUND12). Inbound is THE conference of the year for (can you guess?) inbound marketing. It’s hosted and put on by HubSpot, and it’s open to VARs (Value Added Resellers), end users (HubSpot clients), and anyone who is into inbound marketing. As a VAR, I arrived on…
Don’t Let Fear Stop You from Content Marketing
One of the things that keeps businesses from going “all in” with content marketing is the fear that their content will be stolen by competitors. There is a FANTASTIC video from Marcus Sheridan that explains some of the flaws with this type of thinking. You can share your content and someone might steal it, but…
Why Social Media is NOT a Complete Waste of Time
Most of my web visitors fall into one of three groups. The first are small business owners running a $1 million to $100 million company. The second are marketing executives, and the third are new marketing professionals interested in learning more about inbound marketing or looking for a job with my company, Blue Corona. (Note:…
Short-Term SEO is Stupid
One of the biggest online marketing mistakes business owners make is hiring an SEO company when they are in dire straits and need leads yesterday. If you need leads yesterday, you need to invest in pay per click or asking existing clients for referrals. SEO and inbound marketing are NOT short-term lead generation strategies. Sure,…
Why Guest Blogging is Stupid
In early 2012, the search engine optimization (SEO) world began talking about an upcoming Google update that would penalize “over optimized” websites. That update came in April and was dubbed Panda. While the dust hasn’t totally settled in terms of what exactly Panda penalizes, the folks at Google claim that it’s directly aimed at detecting…
