Top 10 Online Marketing Blogs and Best Online Marketing Blogs Reviews

Online marketing is such a wide term- and later I will publish a separate top ten for affiliate marketing blogs, so if you don’t see someone you expected to see on this list, check back next week for the top ten affiliate marketing blogs.

I am involved in online marketing and my guess is that many of you are as well. Online marketing is evolving by the day, from strategy to costs to opportunities and innovation. To keep up with all of that, you need to read a lot, and where else to find out about online marketing but online?

Here are my Top Ten Online Marketing Blogs:

1. Micro Persuasion
Awesome! On cutting edge of social media as it applies to marketing and the future of public relations, Personal Branding, and everything related to digital marketing. Steve has been doing what he does for over 15 years and offers great perspective and insight around how new media is transforming marketing and public relations.

2. Dosh Dosh
Dosh Dosh is about internet marketing and social media, and more specifically how to make money doing it. Dosh Dosh has a huge archive giving you the rundown on what works and what doesn’t. They show you who’s legit and expose the scams. Great resource.

3. Pronet Advertising
Written by blogger Neil Patel, this blog is full of easy/fun to read posts about marketing strategy. He covers multiple platforms, including blogs, social media networks and SEO.

4. Online Marketing Blog
Very worthy of its straightforward name, the Online Marketing Blog posts daily with information, resources and a heavy dose of insight around everything about online marketing, from SEO and social media to blogging and the brave new world of online public relations. I really enjoy reading posts from Lee Odden.

5. PR 2.0
PR 2.0 blogger Brian Solis is all over the online marketing and PR world. He is one of the original thought leaders who heralded the social media movement, and he continues to write about new developments and integration of social media, public relations and Internet marketing on this blog. He has also come out with some amazing visual maps of Twitter in recent months. Well worth checking out.

6. B.L. Ochman’s Weblog
For practical, on the ground (well, on the Web) opportunities that you may not findo out about yourself, The What’s Next Blog is a great resource. Ochman keeps you informed of what new media, tools, and marketing opportunities are on the way for your blog. He tries to tell you which ones aren’t worth your time, too, which can be almost as valuable.

7. The Buzz Bin
The Buzz Bin is a blog about blogs, wikis, social networks and everything else that is new and transformative in the world of online marketing and communications from a successful, independent Social Media PR firm in Washington. Great insight from a team inside the game.

8. Neville Hobson
Neville Hobson is a UK blogger and podcaster who writes about integrated business, communication and technology in the online world. Another great blog from someone in the industry.

9. Conversation Agent
Online marketing is more than SEO and banner ads, and blogger Valeria Maltoni knows it. Her blog is about how content, delivery and customers are converging to create a new dynamic in the future of what marketing and work in general means.

10. Converstations
Again, coming from the angle that online marketing and communications is a conversation, blogger Mike Sansone writes about blogs and conversational copywriting as a way for businesses to communicate with their customers in the Converstations blog.

Top Ten Online Marketing Blogs and Best Online Marketing Blogs Reviews

Twitter being the social media force that it is, Twitter apps that help you get the most out of the entire Twitter experience are just as important. TwitPic is a great Twitter app that enables you to share photos through your Twitter stream. If you are in affiliate marketing or digital marketing, integrating photos into your Twitter use is a great way to add value to the conversation.

There are four main ways that you can use TwitPic to post pictures: 1. From the Twitter site. 2. From your mobile (BlackBerry, iPhone, etc.) 3. From the TwitPic API. There are also many options to integrate TwitPic with other Twitter apps that offer easy and efficient TwitPic posting options. To use TwitPic you need to create an account on their site (http://twitpic.com/) using the same username that you have on Twitter. If you don’t already have a Twitter account you need to created one first, then start using TwitPic.

With the real-time and consistent update features that Twitter itself offers, Twitter is a great complement for affiliate marketing. Whether for updating your status while at a conference or for other events, TwitPic is a great way to show in addition to tell what you are doing. TwitPic is also a great way to feature photos of your products or your products being used if you are using Twitter as part of an affiliate marketing program.

Overall, TwitPic is a free, easy add to your ability to utilize Twitter as an affiliate marketing tool or as part of your overall personal Twitter experience. Highly recommended.

Twitter is a fantastic social media tool for affiliate marketing with a range of Twitter apps to help you be effective and efficient. Twitturly is one of those Twitter apps that can help you with metrics and analysis of your presence on Twitter.

In essence, Twitturly is a Twitter app that will track and rank the URLs that Twitter users are Twittering about. On the Twitturly.com site they list the most Tweeted about URL’s with: the URL, the Number of Tweets, the 3 most recent Tweets, and give you the option to Tweet the URL.

The most recent change is the ability to filter out celebrity TwitPics and videos. If they are clogging up your stream (or you need a way to keep from the distraction!), Twitturly has a setting to keep them out of your Twitter stream.

Here is their tweet about the update:

Twitturly lets you filter out all the celebrity Twitpics and videos now. Bye bye celebs. http://twitturly.com

The advantages of knowing what URL’s people are Twittering about if you are in affiliate marketing or digital marketing pop right out. It can help with how you position your own products or website, give you ideas for links or partnerships, allow you to see if a particular awareness or product launch campaign is hitting the big time on Twitter or give you valuable examples of what IS hitting the big time that you can learn from.

Basically, Twitturly lets you know which URL’s are hot—and that can be a learning tool, a marketing tool, or a way to keep up with the ever changing landscape on Twitter!

Metrics and analysis of your presence on TwitterTwitter App: Twitturly (Twit-URL-y)

SplitTweet is a Twitter app that enables you to manage multiple Twitter accounts through one interface. If you have multiple Twitter accounts, this is a valuable tool.

In a recent post I wrote about the advantages of having multiple Twitter accounts if you are part of an affiliate program management team and how that can increase your effectiveness and clarity in communication with an affiliate network. If this is you, I recommend checking out SplitTweet as a great way to manage your Twitter presence across multiple accounts. A tool like this will increase efficiency, save you time, and allow you to both monitor all of your accounts at once with the option of tweeting specific information to specific audiences.

On their homepage (http://splitweet.com/) they describe their service this way:

1. All your accounts, one place.
2. Follow your contacts’ tweets easily.
3. Monitor your brand & reply.

Their website is straightforward and easy to use, as is the installation process for SplitTweet.

It is notable that SplitTweet touts their role as part of your “brand.” Branding is fast becoming an indispensable buzz word for how a person or company crafts their online reputation. In addition to being a valuable tool for affiliate program management teams with multiple accounts, a tool like SplitTweet empowers users to cultivate multiple angles through digital marketing or focus on different areas within a larger affiliate network.
You can learn more or download SplitTweet at: http://splitweet.com/

Twitter is all about communication, relationships and adding value. The conversations and people you meet create a strong Twitter community that we are seeing grow in both use an influence with affiliate marketing, digital marketing, business development and many other sectors. Beyond that, Twitter is an exciting new web communication tool for personal use. Being medium for mass communication people have developer Twitter Mass UnFollow Tool and Twitter Mass Unfollow Applications.

Ok, so all of that being said, what about those dozens or hundreds or thousands of people who are following you that you want to Mass UnFollow? Maybe you realize they are part of the reported 60% of Twitter users who start and then stop within a month, or maybe there is a certain area of messages you want to move away from, or maybe you just want to get your Twitter account down to a more manageable level: Twitter Mass UnFollow is the way to go.

So how do you do it?  Twitter Karma.

Twitter Karma is a powerful site that allows you to manage large numbers of people you Follow/ Followers. The most popular uses of the site would be to on Twitter mass unfollow the people who do not Follow you back or the opposite, to Follow all of your Followers that you aren’t already Following. Both can take a long time on the Twitter website. Twitter Karma makes the whole process more efficient for Twitter mass UnFollow or bulk Follow. The main uses are: 1. Unfollow twitter users that aren’t Following you, 2. Follow Twitter users who do Follow you, 3. Bulk Follow and Mass UnFollow options, 4. Sort users by type.

Making it Work: Twitter Karma Mass UnFollow  Tool or Bulk Follow
1.    Go to Twitter Karma
2.    Enter your Twitter ID and password
3.    Click the Whack! Button (you need to go to the site just for this feature!)
4.    After a few minutes, all of your Twitter Followers/ people you Follow will appear on the screen, sorted by the timing of their most recent update.
5.    Option: Sort the list alphabetically or by ascending or descending based on Twitter username.
6.    Filter: You can filter the list by:
a.    All Followers/ Following
b.    Only Followers
c.    Only Following

At this point you can unleash the power of Twitter Mass UnFollow and unfollow everyone in the “Only Following” category. Alternately, you could bulk follow those who are “Only Followers.” In either case, you can also be more selective. The Twitter Karma site is an easy interface to use once it has loaded.

This is a great tool for Twitter Mass UnFollow or bulk follow, or to make your Twitter Follower/Following management more efficient in general. http://huitter.com/ is another Twitter Mass UnFollow Application or Twitter Mass UnFollow Tool.

CellSpin is a BlackBerry app aimed specifically at bloggers. If you are a blogger or host a blog as part of your affiliate marketing efforts, CellSpin is a powerful BlackBerry app. The app is a strong step forward in smoothing out the ways people use mobiles to produce content that shows up as part of their blog or any other web or social media feed. Whether for affiliate management or for digital marketing, this app has the potential to change the way you do affiliate marketing.

CellSpin supports what they call Mobile Blogging- a mix of classic blogging and Twitter-style microblogging. CellSpin enables you to write posts on your BlackBerry and directly post them to your blog- it serves the function and form of a blog post with the real-time benefits of micro-blogging. CellSpin lets you do it with one click.
In addition, they have a Community Blogging feature that lets you produce posts on your BlackBerry (or any other media), engage with readers and others about your topic, and distribute through the CellSpin network. They also offer great tools to manage, monetize, and analyze your posts and user response.

CellSpin supports blogging platforms like WordPress, TypePad, Blogger, and LiveJournal. In the social media sphere, CellSpin supports Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace. Beyond that it supports Flickr, Ebay and Picasa.

One of the great things about Twitter is how easy it is to Follow new people and for those people to Follow you back. Within a few minutes you can lay the basic communication groundwork for a new business relationship. For affiliate marketing this is a great situation—good for digital marketing, lead generation, list building, and all kinds of advantages for an affiliate network.

The drawback to how easy it is to Follow or be Followed on Twitter is that it’s just as easy to be UnFollowed, meaning your list will shrink. A lot of that has to do with Twitter etiquette and how you use your Twitter account. As an affiliate marketing person trying out new digital marketing techniques, seeing what works and what doesn’t is both interesting from a social media marketing perspective and vital from a business perspective.

If you are in the affiliate marketing business, you want Followers. If you are in any business or marketing anything, you want Followers. Once you have those Followers, here is how you UnFollowed:”

1. Don’t OverTweet
Yes, you want to get your digital marketing message out there on Twitter. Yes, a key aspect of Affiliate marketing is getting your marketing message out to as many people as you can. The key is to do that– without overdoing it. If you start to be one of those users who puts out 100 tweets a day, you will be UnFollowed fast. If you schedule 10 tweets to go out at once, effectively flooding the streams of your Followers, you can expect to be rinsed down the drain by the Followers who are paying attention—and those are the ones you want to keep!

2. Be Human, In a Professional Way…
Some users tend to treat their Twitter account either like an RSS feed or like a Instant Messenger account. It’s neither—those both exist already!  Using Twitter to put out a new blog post about affiliate marketing or to talk with the people in your affiliate marketing network about an upcoming conference isn’t bad, but using Twitter solely for either one of those purposes is. If all you do is put out blog posts or new products on your Twitter account, you will start losing Followers. If all you do is chatter away about what you’re getting for lunch, you’ll lose even more. Mix those two in with a whole lot of tweets that “add value” and RT some other great users—now that’s being human, in a professional way….

3. Avoid Doubing Up
Specifically, don’t link your Facebook Status updates to your Tweets. Why not? Overdoing it. Again, as an affiliate marketer or affiliate program management team you want your message out to as many people as possible, but you also want to keep that message fresh. If you are dropping the same messages on the two most popular social media channels you will get stale and possibly annoying very quickly- and that means UnFollowed. Keep it fresh and keep it separate when it comes to updates on Facebook or Twitter.

PPC Summit is a conference held in several cities around the United States that focuses on Pay Per Click affiliate programs. The PPC Summit New York 2009 will take place on May 13 &14 at the Westin Jersey City Newport in Jersey City, New Jersey. The two day pass is listed at $1,395.

With a focus on “How To” workshops, PPC Summit is first and foremost an educational experience for affiliate marketing. Workshops are interactive and will introduce strategies for PPC. If you are in digital marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing or Ecommerce, this is a great conference to refine your craft.

Among other topics, the PPC Summit will cover SEM, keyword strategies, effective copywriting, tracking strategies, landing page creation, metric analysis, and even what kind of programs and tools that are out there that you should avoid. There will be experts there with experience on Google Adwords, Overture, MSN adCenter and many other Pay Per Click channels.

The conference is a great destination if you are looking to learn more about how to manage PPC and SEM campaigns, network with PPC vendors and other affiliate marketers, and generally be surrounded by SEM experts with the chance to ask questions and talk about where you are at with your own affiliate marketing campaign.

If you haven’t checked out the TweetStats Twitter app yet, you need to (right after you finish this article). TweetStats is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: It gives you great statistics about your Twitter use, and about Twitter in general.

All you have to do is type in your Twitter name and in a few minutes TweetStats will bring up graphs (which are easy to read and colorful) that show your: Tweets per hour, Tweets per month, Tweet timeline and Reply statistics.

It’s fun to look at, bottom line. And if you are in affiliate marketing, this can be an amazing tool. You can see what keywords you use, what words you use the most and where you will be found on TweetSearch, and vividly show you where your blank spots on the Twitter timeline are. The one drawback is that it takes a few minutes to create your graphs—factor that in when you visit the site.

The site even has some great stats about Twitter in general that give you a fun overall picture of Twitter. There are graphs of the current Twitter trends and graphs about who is getting the most @messages. There is even an “All-time” Trend Cloud. Guess what’s #1? Looks like it’s iPhone with Christmas and Obama close behind. Other notables are Apple, Sarah Palin and #tcot.

TweetStats is easy to use, free, and could lead to some great insights or ideas for anyone in digital marketing or affiliate program management.

Interview with Anthony Hull the Event Manager of ad:tech London. I am a big fan of the Ad:tech shows and realise that I have been to more than 10 Ad:tech show in 3 continents now.

Tell us more about Ad:tech London this year?

I believe the Ad:tech Shows are about learning and networking within your industry. I try and help make the show as interactive as possible and a great experience for everyone who comes. I work with a great team who help to make this one of the leading online marketing shown in the world.

Why come to the Adtech London Show?

• Network & share real experiences with like-minded professionals in digital marketing.
• Source the latest solutions for your marketing strategies and advertising campaigns.
• Understand how to build brands successfully online and generate measureable marketing return on investment.
• Build relationships with consumers online and maximise your customer retention.
• Investigate the latest innovations to stride ahead of the competition.
• Learn the latest industry initiatives at the FREE ad:tech seminars.

What was your first show?

My first show ad:tech London 2007. I was amazed by the sheer scale of the event and the incredible buzz on the show floor. You could walk the floor and at any given time see three or four groups of people doing business around you. I’ve spent nearly 11 years working on various different kind of events, many of them market leaders, but I’ve never worked on a show as successful as ad:tech London.

What is the biggest tip you would give to a newbie at adtech?

There’s an old-fashioned mindset that sometimes persists where exhibitors feel that once their space is booked its job done. Don’t fall into this trap. There are so many ways you can maximize your investment at a show whether it be by speaking, including press releases in the buyers guide or perhaps getting involved in the hospitality around the event. I’m lucky in that my role allows me to talk to exhibitors about any element of the show so I can take their brief and deliver a tailored package that suits their budget and maximizes their ROI. I’m also lucky that the ad:tech exhibitors are so switched on. They know how to work the floor and go home with as much business as possible.

What do exhibitors do that you wish they wouldn’t?

Sit down talking on their phones when they should be doing business with visitors!!! Seriously though, it always amazes me when you see stand staff failing to engage visitors as they approach their stand. You’ve paid to be in front of these people, talk to them! Whilst you were taking that quick phone call someone with £200k to spend on your solution could walked past. Thankfully these incidents are few and far between with the ad:tech exhibitors – they know what they’re doing.

What do attendees do that you wish they wouldn’t?

To be honest the ad:tech visitors are brilliant. They have the money to spend, they take the conversations they have with exhibitors seriously but they’re also there to learn, network and have fun so I couldn’t ask for more. Mercifully the tire kickers leave us alone!

Where do you see growth in the online field?

Every year we commission independent research to find out what our visitors will be spending money on for the next 12 months and for this year mobile and social were the frontrunners in terms of newer solutions. Interestingly though there was also a shift towards the more “traditional” techniques like email and search which is almost certainly a reflection of the economy and the visitors’ desire to use tried and tested techniques. I also think measurement is going to be incredibly important. Now more than ever marketers need to justify their investment.

What new ideas are exhibitors coming up with to take advantage of new trends?

Exhibitors realize that ad:tech London is an ideal place to launch new products, rebrand and generally tell the industry what you’re up to so you know when you go to the show that there’ll be a few surprises and stories to take home! Networking has always been important to our visitors and exhibitors so as well as finding suppliers and taking orders there’ll be parties to go to and friends to catch up with.

What do you do to improve the world?

ad:tech provides a place were where one of the fastest growing and exciting industries in the country can come together, exchange ideas and celebrate the amazing work they do. Online marketing is not only weathering the recession but growing and evolving despite it. We should support and encourage that in any way we can.

What do you do that is green?

I recycle but it’s more what I don’t do. I got rid of the car last year so it’s public transport all the way, the flat doesn’t have a garden so no hosepipes and I’m terrified of flying so I don’t do much air travel aside from business!

What is one thing about you that not many people know?

If I was a girl I was going to be called Andrea.

What’s your favorite book?

Hmmm, tough but probably the Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. It’s bewildering and bizarre but heart-warming and beautifully written at the same time. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys the stranger side of life. Actually, I wonder what that says about me?!

What is on your iPod?

At the moment early Streets and Dizzie Rascal are putting in a repeat performance. The new Yeah Yeah Yeahs is fantastic and I love the White Denim album. I’m in a band so I could bore you about music all day…..

What are your contact details (email, company, blog, facebook, myspace, twitter, forums, etc)?

Anthony Hull
anthonyhull@dmgworldmedia.com
Twitter: anthonytweet

How do you prefer to communicate?

Phone or email is fine.

Thank  you Anthony Hull of adtech London.  Are you going to Ad:tech London this year?