Internet Marketing Course BLOG

Internet Marketing Course Blog
Dave Ingalls
July 28, 2009

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): This IMC Blog entry is a bit different. I’m going to help readers who use Joomla and/or WordPress find out if they’ve got any Internet Explorer 6.0 (“IE6″) display issues with either their Joomla Web site templates and/or WordPress blogging themes. If they do, I also outline how they can get a head start on fixing those problems by looking “under the hood” of these 2 very popular Web applications. Why am I doing this? Because I just went thru this situation myself and I thought I’d spare my readers some of the pain I went thru finding a solution!

According to Market Solutions, 2009 YTD IE6 usage still stands at 18% of all Internet browsers. IE7 (42%) and IE8 (6% and climbing rapidly) are both taking share from IE6, but at this writing, IE6 is still the THIRD most popular Web browser in terms of usage.

So why worry about high IE6 usage by Web surfers? Because IE6 is NOT the same as IE7 or IE8. Without getting into the details, let’s just say that IE7 and IE8, along with all popular versions of the Firefox Web browser, know how to correctly interpret and display the latest underlying HTML, CSS and XHTML code that most popular Joomla! (content management system) Web site templates and WordPress (blogging software) blog themes use. IE6, however, was developed before these new browser software standards were adopted by all browser manufacturers. And with almost 20% of Web browser usage, IE6 can make your Web sites and blogs look more like a Picasso painting (no offense to the master) than the beautiful sites/blogs you see in standards compliant browsers to 1 in 5 Web surfers! Not a good situation!

What did I do about this potential problem and why did I care? Because this Internet Marketing Course Blog uses WordPress and my Internet Marketing Course Web site uses Joomla!

Here’s what I ended up doing after much surfing and trial/error.

» Continue reading “IE6 Problems-How to See Them-How to Fix Them”

B2B Online
May 15, 2009

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Paul Gillin, in this video clip that is less than 2 minutes long, gives B2B Internet Marketers GREAT advice for marketing in today’s evolving “Inbound Marketing” online world. Make the commitment to providing the best, most informative and timely content for your area of expertise and you can become the New York Times of that niche. (You can learn more about Paul on his Web site Gillin.com.)

“At BtoB’s Boston NetMarketing Breakfast on May 14, B2B caught up with Paul Gillin, author of “The New Influencers” and “Secrets of Social Media Marketing”.”

Click on the link below to see where Paul thinks B2B Online Marketing is headed and why the collapse of traditional print publishing is making it possible.

Read the entire article online by clicking on the following link:

Paul Gillin, author and consultant on new media technologies

Technorati Tags:Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

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By Rick Burnes
HubSpot Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
April 22, 2009

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Great advice about how small businesses can generate content consistently AND painlessly. Another idea from the B2B world – if you distribute your product or service thru a distribution network, you may find that one or more of your distributors have blogs and have blogged about a successful application of your company’s products to solve one of their customer’s problems. “Steal” the blog content for your blog – if you tell that distributor what you’re up to, they’ll LOVE the extra mileage you give their content! A classic Win-Win!

“If you’re a small business owner or a professional marketer getting started with inbound marketing, you’re probably worried about content.

You understand that content is the best way to win the SEO lottery and get found on the web — but you’re worried that producing all that content will be hard. You and your staff (if you have one!) weren’t trained as professional writers and the prospect of regular blog responsibilities is daunting.

I don’t blame you. I worked in the news business for seven years before joining HubSpot, and the prospect of producing new, original content everyday is overwhelming to me, too.

Here’s a secret: Writing a useful, popular blog doesn’t require that you come up with spellbinding new ideas every day. You should be able to create useful content from things you’re already doing on a regular basis.

To do this, you need to be in a content mindset. Instead of trying to come up with ideas when you sit down to write blog posts, look for posts throughout the day.

Here are five more specific ways you can do this:”

Read the entire article online by clicking on the following link:

Does Your Company Have the Content Mindset?

Technorati Tags:Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

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by Rick Burnes
Hubspot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
November 18, 2008

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): What an insightful and helpful article! Rick Burnes does a masterful job of integrating the next round of Internet Marketing initiatives and showing how they can form the basis of a comprehensive online “Inbound Marketing” strategy. The comparison of Inbound Marketing tools to “Outbound Marketing” tools is spot-on. An excerpt with one of the charts from this blog entry is given below. I suggest you STOP whatever you’re doing, take 10 minutes and read the entire article (link below). You will not be disappointed!

“What Is Inbound Marketing?”

“Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.

Technology is making these techniques less effective and more expensive. Caller ID blocks cold calls, TiVo makes T.V. advertising less effective, spam filters block mass emails and tools like RSS are making print and display advertising less effective. It’s still possible to get a message out via these channels, but it costs more.

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.

Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a sledgehammer, they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a magnet.”

Read the entire article by clicking on this link:

“Inbound marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web”

Technorati Tags:Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

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by Jim Spencer
JBS Partners
August 2008

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): I was doing some “catch-up” reading this weekend and came across a great Twitter tutorial. Like everyone else, I’ve heard the buzz, or should I say the “tweeting”, about Twitter, even opened an account, but never did anything with it until I read this how-to by Jim Spencer. A quick, informative read to get you tweeting too!

“I surely thought Twitter was for the birds after creating my Twitter account back in early 2007. As an entrepreneur, I find that time and resources need to be well targeted and purposeful. I could see no purpose as I stared at the blank screen. This was not a resource for me.

Today, I can confirm both customer and colleague relationships initiated through Twitter as well as many friendships and even money in the bank. Here is how that all changed, after a Twitter primer.”

Click on the following link to read the entire article:

Is Twitter for the Birds? A Tweet Tweet Tutorial

Technorati Tags:Business, Internet Marketing, Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Web Marketing

Link to: Internet Marketing Course