At an online networking group I belong to, someone asked us what we thought were some good, solid, tried-and true methods of marketing online, that still work and never die?

Here are five rules I follow for  marketing online, besides through social media and social networking. more…

So you have a web site.  Or a blog.  Or whatever it is you want to promote on the web.  Promoting online through social media and social networks can seem like waving a magic wand, and if you are putting out what people like to hear or read, it can seem like a simple way to do marketing when you find out folks to pay attention to you, vs. mailing out postcards, stomping the pavement and going door-to-door to introduce yourself to other businesses, etc.

The trick is, though, to get people to listen to you and trust you, eventually buying from you!  When networking online through social media or networking sites, a good rule to keep in mind more…

You never know.  I remember that when I first started blogging, there were some rules I knew not to follow, but a few remain blurry.

Thankfully, I found a recent post at JMarganMarketing.com, “Top Reasons Why Blogs Fail and How to Avoid Blog Failure” which helped me figure out what’s black and white.

Are you committing any of these blog sins?  You may be able to see things more clearly, too.  The post outlines several reasons why blogs fail and how to dig yourself out of a possible hole before it gets too deep.

- Read full story here.

Hubspot.com produced this video, featuring Rebecca Corliss belting out about her frustration with outbound marketing!

Click to view video - opens in a new window

The question it begs? Why are you spending SO much time and money on cold calling, direct mail and TV ads when you could do much better by throwing a bit of $$ into the Internet?

Too many small businesses are serving a large piece of their advertising budget pie to postcards, newspaper and telephone book ads, in an era of the Internet.   Don’t these people know that more than 65% of their audience is online looking for them?

Perhaps they’ll get a clue if they see this video.  Alannis Morissette, eat your heart out!

Full lyrics, credits and more media available here.

I get so many cool links to great links from my followers and folks whom I follow.  Here are the top items I found most useful or interesting so far, with a credit to the Twitter-er.

Enjoy! more…

This weekend, I had the pleasure of learning how to make lefse from scratch, at my mom’s kitchen.  Mom’s friend Mary came over and taught us how, from her husband’s late mother’s family recipe, which is as close to “grandma’s’” as we could get this holiday season.

Below is the recipe, and some of my own observations, during the experience. more…