4M

http://www.evolutionofdance.com/

#1 viewed video on YouTube
#2 top rated video on YouTube
appearing on the today show next week

Why? Because it’s FUNNY! It’s oddball, goofy, easy to understand funny. It’s low production values, it’s one funny-looking white dude unselfconsciously doing goofy dances to greatest hits for no damn good reason, it’s frickin funny. At the end of the video: replay - or send to a friend. Viral.

This is what successful viral campaigns …

So recently I was working on one of our sites and noticed that the credit card logos in the checkout page (we accept card 1, card 2, etc) were looking a bit stale and pixelated. Being the brand-sensitive marketing-guru-wannabe that I am, I decided to go hunt down some better ones.

Went to visa.com. Three painless, brainless clicks, no questions asked and I have their brand-new sparkly clean logo in my …

In almost every case I recommend that clients who are doing a redesign take a hard and critical look at the words they use on their website. Good design is powerful, but good content is crucial.

Here’s the problem: writing for the web is distinctly different than writing for any other medium. The truth is, when people are on the web searching for information and products, they behave a little bit …

This was a Q&A with a potential client and I thought the information might be helpful to some of you readers out there (my mom calls you my “imaginary friends”).

Backstory: CI stands for Corporate Identity and is one of the add-on services YVOD offers. This person was trying to decide whether to use YVOD to develop her CI package along with her website.

Q: I am curious whether it is …

Seth Godin, marketing god:

Step 1: Make something worth talking about
Step 2: Tell it to people who want to hear from you
Step 3: They spread the word to their friends
Step 4: Get permission from them to tell them about your next product

You end up not finding customers for your products, but products for your customers.

A very interesting speech Seth Godin gave to the Google-royalty:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6909078385965257294

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is an ever-evolving discipline because search engines get smarter and smarter every day. There are many useful search engines out there, including topic-specific ones, but for the purposes of this conversation we’ll just use Google to represent all the search engines.

Keywords list

Step 1: Determine for what words and phrases you would like to rank highly. These are the words you use to describe what you …

Sometimes beautiful design makes me want to cry. When something just works so well you are reduced to a shivering mass in awe of it. You know what I mean. Every now and then I come across something that is just pure internet gorgeousness. Like this:

First of all, this isn’t just another pretty site. It’s the site of a company with a great product. Akismet is a …

Yeah, I said it. I know, it’s blasphemy. But somebody’s got to stand up and point out that big red pimple on the emperor’s butt, which we wouldn’t be able to see if he were wearing clothes.

Listen: A blog is a marketing tool. It’s not a be-all, end-all solution to all of your marketing problems, just like a hammer isn’t the only tool you need to build a house. And …

Great article fromaAd-verse about the idiocy of most direct marketing: “A Science of Stupidities”

My favorite quote:

Do people not see the irony? Do direct marketers like spam? Phone calls during dinner? Junk mail in their mailbox? Screaming banner headlines and infomercials? Do direct marketers drink their own Kool-Aid?

The thoughts in this article apply to all forms of marketing, not just direct marketing. In a way it is really an indictment …

Since I spent Super Bowl Sunday relaxing on the beach with my son, I missed all the commercials, which is the only reason I would have watched the game anyway. Not to worry - Google Video to the rescue! You can watch them individually or all together.

Who needs a tv anyway??

Super Bowl XL Commercials on Google Video