Mastering Local Search: A Marketer's Playbook
An operational playbook for getting a business into Google Local and Yahoo Local as both launched dedicated local search products in 2004.
The Archive
2004
Common RSS Marketing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
As FeedBurner and Firefox's Live Bookmarks pulled RSS into the marketing mainstream in 2004, marketers kept making one mistake: treating it like email.
Online Video Trends Shaping 2004
A snapshot of where online video stood in 2004: broadband crossing the halfway mark, viral branded stunts and a format war nobody had won yet.
Building a Pay-Per-Click Strategy in Google's IPO Year
A step-by-step build guide for launching a pay-per-click program in 2004, the year Google's IPO put search advertising's economics under wider scrutiny.
Mastering The Long Tail: A Marketer's Playbook
Chris Anderson named the long tail in Wired this October. Here's the operational playbook for marketers who want niche demand instead of chasing hits.
Social Networking: What Every Business Needs to Know
A decision framework for deciding whether Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut or the new Thefacebook are worth a business owner's time in 2004.
A Practical Guide to Email Deliverability and CAN-SPAM
The nuts and bolts of running an email marketing program in 2004: how lists get built, how sends reach the inbox and what CAN-SPAM requires in practice.
The State of Search Engine Optimization in 2004
A snapshot of where search stood in 2004: Yahoo running its own engine again, the Florida update's aftermath still settling and Google headed for an IPO.
How Business Blogging Changed Digital Marketing in 2004
The year Merriam-Webster named blog its word of the year and corporate blogging moved from oddity to a strategy that boardrooms started asking about.
Building a Google AdWords Strategy in the Cost-Per-Click Era
A step-by-step 2004 build guide for a first AdWords account: campaign structure, match types, negative keywords and the relevance-weighted ranking system.
Web 2.0 Marketing Before It Had a Name
The phrase Web 2.0 is just starting to circulate ahead of October's conference, but the shift toward blogs, RSS and user participation is already under way.
The Rise of Conversion Optimization
From Google AdWords making every click cost money to the first commercial testing platforms, how conversion optimization became a discipline of its own by 2004.
Common Affiliate Marketing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
The recurring mistakes merchants made with affiliate programs in 2004, from unchecked cookie-stuffing to loose terms that let bad actors damage the brand.
Common Contextual Advertising Mistakes to Avoid
Publishers and advertisers kept repeating the same avoidable errors with contextual ad networks in 2004, from click fraud to overly aggressive ad placement.
A Practical Guide to Local Search
For any business that depends on nearby customers, local search is where they look first. Here is how Google decides who appears in the local pack.
Case Study: Winning With RSS Marketing
An illustrative look at a small software company that turned a product-updates feed into a marketing channel, helped by FeedBurner and Firefox's Live Bookmarks.
Mastering Online Video Before YouTube Existed
A practical playbook for producing and distributing branded video in 2004, before YouTube existed, when bandwidth costs and format fragmentation ruled.
6 Costly Pay-Per-Click Mistakes Advertisers Made in 2004
The costly, avoidable errors advertisers kept making with AdWords and Yahoo Search campaigns in 2004, from broad match bleed to ignoring conversion tracking.
10 Long Tail Strategies That Work
Chris Anderson named the long tail in Wired in October 2004. Ten concrete ways businesses put the idea to work in catalog, content and ad strategy that year.
A Practical Guide to Social Networking
Hands-on notes on Friendster, LinkedIn, Orkut and the newly-launched Facebook, and where a small business could reasonably spend time in 2004.
How Email Marketing Changed Digital Marketing in 2004
A year-in-review look at 2004: CAN-SPAM's first full year in effect, growing spam filter aggressiveness and how email marketing responded.
Why SEO Matters as Google's Ad Costs Keep Climbing
As Google's ad auction pushes cost-per-click higher heading into its IPO, organic rankings are turning into the cheaper, more durable half of a search budget.
The Rise of Business Blogging: From Weblog to Boardroom
From a word coined in 1997 to a tool boardrooms are asking about in 2004: the actual timeline behind how blogging became a business channel.
Common Google AdWords Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
Six mistakes tripping up businesses new to Google AdWords in 2004, from broad match waste to landing pages that never got tested.
Building a Web 2.0 Marketing Strategy From Scratch
A step-by-step guide to building a participatory web presence in early 2004: blogs, RSS feeds and comment sections, at a time before anyone called it Web 2.0.