.

Myth #1 – It all starts with a great web site.

A flashy splash page with gigantic lifestyle photos will not draw consumers into your site by itself. Your Company needs to have a strong brand identity with well defined services. Even the most attractive of websites won’t convert visitors into customers if you can’t describe your professional specialty and specify the core benefits your work provides for your clients.

Myth #2 – Do whatever it takes to build your email list.

There’s no question that a substantial opt-in mailing list is a valuable marketing asset, but the quality of names on your list is much more important than the quantity. Acquiring names through giveaways of other people’s material, trading lists with joint venture partners, or purchasing them from a vendor rarely provides qualified buyers truly interested in your services. You have worked hard to build a credible name for your company, why tarnish your reputation?

Myth #3 – More traffic translates to increased profits.

The only result that more traffic to your website guarantees you is increased bandwidth use by your web host. Before breaking the bank on excessive amounts of PPC and banner ads for an unproven site you should mercilessly critique it and invite existing customers to do the same. Consider it constructive criticism and take the time to fine tune your site before diving into a massive campaign.

Myth #4 – Killer copywriting is the secret to sales.

Your Internet marketing persona should reflect the same professionalism as the work you do with your clients. You should avoid gimmicky “limited time only” and “buy one get one free” catch phrases. Those appeals are best left to the late night infomercial salesmen. You are a professional who’s copy should inspire trust and brand loyalty.

Myth #5 – Just follow the magic formula and you will get rich.

There is no magical panacea to cure your internet marketing woes. The secret to landing clients is what it always has been. You need to build relationships and get people to know, like, and trust you. Building long-term, trusting relationships with prospective clients and referral sources will win you business on the web.

Buzz Bissinger smears Will Leitch of DeadSpin.com on Costas Now’s HBO special on April 29th. Check out the full segment here: http://deadspin.com/385770/bissinger-vs-leitch

A clear divide between the baby boomer journalist and the 30 something embracing the blogosphere era. Please weigh in on this HOT topic.

Transparency people. Wake up.

Furthermore, a recent poll shows that 19% of people ages 18-34 are regular newspaper readers. The average age of the newspaper reader is 55 and rising. Is Buzz feeling threatened here? Even so, he doesn’t need to be so blatantly and flat out rude.

Your thoughts?

I attended the MS Vision to Venture event on April 15th in San Diego. Event details - http://officeliveoffers.com/v2v/default.htm

I arrived early to take advantage of networking opportunities. There was definitly a great table set up in the room and PINK theme. However, not a lot of heavy networking going on pre-show. I took this time to find the keynote speakers and introduce myself.

The exhibitor area was fairly small in size. The Pixel Fish video service was definitely geared toward the small business looking for an affordable video solution. This is also a great strategy to target the iPhone users.

Next exhibitor was Duct Tape marketing . A great blog to subscribe to. And who just happened to be standing next to the booth - founder of Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch.

The first keynote speaker was Susan Wilson Solovic of SBTV.com. A very inspiring business women, who took the stage by surprise and told business women to rise up and take charge of their businesses.

I managed to stop Rich Sloan of StartUpNation.com. He’s a very young and professional business person with lots of energy. He was very easy to talk to. I asked him how much time he takes to blog every week. Drum role please - 20 minutes per day. So even the new blogger can make it happen while drinking your Starbucks and writing your morning blog.

The overall feedback/comments on the Microsoft event was that MS was pushing their new Office Live Biz package a bit too hard. While they were giving away a free copy of the software, most savvy business people weren’t too keen on being hard sold in the middle of an educational event.

Till next time.

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A new blog is launched every second. If you somehow have not yet had the pleasure of reading one, they are online publications in the form of a log or journal where the writer can voice their opinion and information of the topic on hand. We read marketing blogs, blogs about shopping, kids, dogs, home-selling, entertainment news, and more.

People write blogs to keep in touch with family members, to have a creative outlet, to have an extension of their already existing website, and (but not limited to) to make money on referrals. Due to their popularity, blogs are also being used as an Internet marketing tool. Corporate blogs can be a viable tool in effective communication to the corporate community.

Mistakes to avoid when blogging:

1. Never launching your blog. Enough said.
2. Using a sub domain. You are going to want full control over your website URL later, and it will be more difficult to fix if you have it separate. You can even map your own domain to a blogging site.
3. Spending too much time on the design. Pick a template and stick with it. The focus should be on the content.
4. Keeping your blog to yourself. When a new blog is launched, there has not yet been enough time to get links to you or be ranked by a search engine. You have to do a lot of word-of-mouth marketing.
5. Getting discouraged. It is hard to get everything up and running and successful overnight. Everything takes time. Give yourself one year.
6. Biting off more than you can chew. While Google offers many advertising possibilities, hold off until you have an audience. Once you have readers then work on making money.
7. Update in a regular, timely fashion. Your readers want to know what to expect!