Certainly, there are hundreds of internet marketing and business blogs that you should read (including all of them right here at Bizzia). You probably subscribe to quite a few already. However, here are just 10 of my personal favorites. Each blogger writes in an engaging manner, providing money making, marketing and business tips that are insightful and helpful, no matter what industry you are in.

Image: sxc.hu

• Erica Douglass’ erica.biz
• Pat O’Bryan’s Portable Empire Blog
• Carrie Wilkerson’s The Barefoot Executive
• John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing
• David Meerman Scott’s Web Ink Now
• Marketing Pilgrim
• Seth Godin’s Blog
• Lip-Sticking
• Darren Rowse’s ProBlogger
• Ian Lurie’s Conversation Marketing

Of course, these are just the tip of the iceberg but I thought it would be a good start.

What marketing blogs are you reading?

Whether you are launching your new business, adding a new product line or beginning a new marketing campaign, getting your press release out to the right people is essential. If you are a small business and don’t have a PR company handling your press and publicity, it may seem difficult to identify targets for your pitch.

Business Call - Image: sxc

You can certainly distribute your press release through an online service or use a number of networking websites, but what if you want your pitch on a television newscast, on the radio or in the newspaper? That’s when you have to do a little legwork and research.

Well ahead of time, read magazines and newspapers, listen to radio shows, and identify TV shows that might be good targets. Get comfortable with the medium and figure out if they would be a good place to plug your products or services.

Once you have a target, you need to get your press release into the right person’s hands. Though email is the way of the world these days, don’t forget the power of the phone call. If you are targeting a specific newspaper/magazine writer or columnist, you should be able to find their contact information online or in the publication itself. For a television or radio show, it might not be as easy to achieve. Your best bet is to just pick up the phone and call direct. Even if you only know a general telephone number, simply ask which reporter may be interested in covering a story on your topic.

As intimidating as it may seem, you believe in your product or service (otherwise you wouldn’t be selling it). With confidence, research and know-how, you can get your press release out to the right people and begin creating a buzz about your business.

Image credit: graphiteBP

Tamar Weinberg over at Techipedia has created a list of the best internet marketing posts of 2008.

The comprehensive list is broken down into the following categories:

• Search Engine Optimization
• Social Media (General)
• Social Media (Social Sites)
• Twitter
• Sphinn
• LinkedIn
• Digg
• Wikipedia
• Stumble Upon
• Fark
• Facebook
• del.icio.us
• Flickr
• FriendFeed
• Blogging
• Viral Marketing
• Link Building
• Reputation Management
• Analytics
• Personal Branding
• Local Search
• Content Development
• Web Development
• Affiliate Marketing
• Domains & Domaining
• AdWords/PPC
• Internet Marketing
• General Marketing
• Best of Techipedia

In each category, you will find several links to some of the best articles and blog posts of the year on the topic. This is quite an amazing resource and very well organized. I found the links in the Social Media, Personal Branding and Internet Marketing sections to be very helpful, but they all have merit.

Check out the list of the Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008 and if you don’t see something listed that you think is top-notch, leave a comment below and provide us the link!

Photo credit: stock.xchng

Hi,

I’m Kori Ellis. I’m taking over the reins here at Behind the Buzz. I write several other blogs for b5media, plus I’m also the Channel Editor for the Sports, Technology and Beauty & Style channels.

Behind the Buzz covers all aspects of digital and interactive marketing and advertising. I hope to discuss a variety of topics including the following:

Establishing a web presence, including corporate websites, portal strategies, microsites and interactive web marketing.

Search marketing and search engine optimization techniques.

Outbound web marketing, including email marketing and syndication.

Branding (though you can find more terrific content about branding from Katherine Liew at Brandcurve), including developing and extending your brand through banner advertising, contextual advertising, cross-branding and affiliate marketing.

Social media marketing, including blogging, social networking, message boards, wikis, podcasts, user ratings and other aspects of social media.

Additionally, we’ll discuss online video, virtual worlds, internet TV, mobile content and much more.

We’ll take a look at the types of marketing and the ad campaigns being used by businesses, both small and large. I’ll also provide digital marketing tips, trends and strategies that may help you in marketing your own business.

I hope you check back often, comment (even if you disagree), and subscribe to our RSS feed.

Here’s to a happy and successful 2009!

- Kori

^{Photo credit: sxc.hu}

Sometimes, ads enter the culture and take on a life on their own. This happened with the Bud Wassup ad, as any search on YT will show you.

Now there’s a pretty great follow up, from 60Frames (not associated with Bud at all) but seeing what it is like for those characters 8 years on - Wassup 2008. It’s another example of how democratising creative tools, where anyone can learn the tools and create new stuff with them, changes how democracy and other political systems are run. (via Agency Spy)

Here’s another brilliant example of use of these tools.

http://view.break.com/592648 - Watch more free videos

Of course, here I have to put a disclaimer and say there are other political parties out there!

David Brain sent me a copy of his new book, Crowd Surfing, that was co-authored with Martin Thomas.

The book’s subtitle is “Surviving and thriving in the age of consumer empowerment” and that’s what it is all about. With the web allowing people to connect and comment like never before, how does a company navigate its way through the expressed opinion.

One concern I’ve had in reading this type of book in the past is that I already know the case studies, that there’s nothing knew. In this case, the first few studies wnet one better - I knew the people involved. But even with the case studies I knew, there was a lot of great analysis and commentary that bring the ideas to life. It never tells you what to do, but gives you a lot of things to think about it. Well worth it.

I’ve noticed recently that Smirnoff are sponsoring blogs and blogging events, a little different on scale from the usual things they sponsor.

An example of the latter would be the Silent Disco, a series of events where everyone wears headphones and dance in their own world.

Photo used under CC Licence. By renaissancechambara

But these events are pretty large and a national campaign. They’re also sponsoring smaller events, or at least the Moscow Mule team are. They’re supporting the London Bloggers Meetup, providing a mixology session for the attendees.* They’re also running a contest with Londonist, to win a Moscow Mule Kit.

Smirnoff are ably demonstrating the ability to come at marketing from both ends, what I believe to be an essential part of any marketing mix these days. Do the big, mass advertising, the national tours and events, but also look for the smaller things, the places you can connect directly with your customers. I’m a strong believer in that being the next steps in marketing, combining the more traditional advertising with the social media aspect, to connect and to reach

Susan Gunelius, a fellow writer at b5media on Brandcurve, has just released a book. Titled “Harry Potter The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon“, it examines the marketing and success of the Harry Potter books and assesses whether it is repeatable. I’ve not read the book yet, but did skip to the conclusion. As I expected, the answer is maybe, probably; the books goes into the lessons to be be learnt by publishers, about letting content free for fans to build something around. I’m looking forward to the read!

Sean Moffit has a great list of word of mouth, buzz and viral blogs. He’s set it up as if it was the Ryder Cup, with America vs the rest of the world. It’s a list full of some brilliant blogs (not just because I’m on it) and a perfect starting point if you want to find a few more blogs to add to your reading list.

Unlike some of the social media- and tech dedicated marketing and media bloggers, these broad-minded bloggers and company heads (below) have distinguished themselves by helping visitors understand how ideas spread, online and offline, through a range of different strategies and tactics and each recognizes the importance of having brands getting noticed, talked about and advocated in a 2.0 world.

The theme for the promo day for b5media Business Channel is “Does Experience Matter?”. I have to answer yes - for a brand or company, the experience that a potential or existing customer has when they hit your website or interact with your distributed content or any of your marketers does matter. Remember, your marketers are not just the people with that function in the job title, but customer service reps, shop front people, receptionists and anyone who may interact with a customer.

So let me list some bad website experiences, the practices that I dislike and make me question the product. These aren’t the same for everyone of course, some people may love these.

• Opening splash pages. I’ve typed in the URL or clicked on a link and all I get is a useless splash page (usually in flash, so it’s dynamic and moving, supposed to show something about the company). Don’t make me click again!!! Just take me right to the action or the information.
• All flash sites that don’t have section URLs. Some all flash sites are brilliant, or have some great sections or information I want to share. If you don’t let me send out URLs to specific sections/pages, how am I going to share it via IM, Twitter or this blog. I’m not going to type out instructions on how to get there.
• All flash sites for information-led sites. Flash has its place, for video, for interactive experiences. If all you are doing is showing some case studies, some text-driven information or anything that really does not require ‘action’ then stick to HTML. Or at least fix the flash so I can copy and paste relevant information.
• Dodgy roll-over menus. You know the ones, they expand and you can’t move the mouse in the right direction to actually click on something before the menu goes away.
• Using forums for help instead of providing some basic information. I tend to see this more with tech companies, where there’s help forums. Great for a lot of stuff, but when it’s used to replace basic documentation, making me search through multiple forum threads for an answer, then it’s just annoying.
• Sites that go away. If you put up a site, ie for a tactical campaign, then keep it there, or at least degrade the URLS gracefully t your main site. Please don’t break the internet.
• Teeny, tiny windows. Sites where there’s a whole page, but the only bit that changes as you click around is a little bit in the middle, with scroll bars. Use all the page!
• Sites that don’t have a mobile version. At minimum, put up a basic page saying that a user needs to go to a big browser to have the experience, don’t just leave it blank.
• Pages that resize my browser. I’ve probably got my screen set up just as I want it, don’t ruin it byhijacking the browser settings.
• Autoplaying sound. I’ve got about 100 tabs open at the moment, don’t make me hunt down the one that is making the weird noises.

Oooh, going to have to stop there before I get too irate. So, what are your pet peeves about your website experiences.