Posted by Lucy Langdon When I talk about 'niche blogs', I mean blogs that are regularly updated and focus mainly, but not exclusively, on a certain subject area like, for example, crocheting or tea. More often than not, a blog with a specialty will be of a much higher quality than your average 'rambling and musings of x' site. However, with a zillion new blogs published per hour, it's getting increasingly difficult to ferret these quality blogs out,

I have always been a huge fan of RSS. More specifically, I have been a fan of XML. Quite a few of the projects I have worked on past and present have utilized XML to standardize data. RSS really is just a specific type of standardized XML. The purpose of RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is, as you may have guessed, to syndicate content. The most common use of RSS is to quickly and easily follow your favorite blogs from either a desktop RSS reader,

Since the publication of my research piece, the Long Road to Conversion: The Digital Purchase Funnel earlier this year, clients have been asking the institute if we could get them a purchase funnel for their industry. In many cases it just isnt possible, but in the case of online telcom advertisers (VOIP, Cellular, etc..) I was able to get enough data together to do an analysis. The result is the funnel chart on the right. In most ways,

Does it matter to Google if the specified page is in the root folder or deeper? This question has been popping up for ages and let's discuss all possible angles of it. 1. The page physical location hardly matters Though it is often speculated Google likes root folders more, it is more about the "visibility" of the page and proper interlinking than its actual location. Any page linked to repeatedly and consistently throughout the site will be found,

Since it changed one of its trademark policies for  AdWords, Google had earned nine lawsuits concerning patent infringement from various companies.  Now, Google is facing yet again, a new lawsuit this time from Rosetta Stone, a language-learning software firm. Rosetta Stone filed a legal complaint againsts Google for allegedly allowing companies to use Rosetta Stone's patented brands when serving online ads.

'Most good copywriters . . . fall into two categories. Poets. And killers. Poets see an ad as an end. Killers as a means to an end.' If you are both killer and poet, you get rich. ~ David Ogilvy Who knew that a dead Scottish ad guy, writing 25 years ago, would so succinctly capture what the Third Tribe was all about? But if you're an advertising history junkie like I am, you're not surprised. David Ogilvy was one of the original (and great) Mad Men,

Funny how the world revolves around keywords and key phrases these days and yet no one understands them! So what's to understand? First off is getting to grips with the intent of the person behind the keyword or phrase. Search engines have been struggling.

Posted by Danny Dover Personal branding is the art of showcasing your experiences, accomplishments and perspectives. Like many of you, I knew the importance of this but had always put building a personal branding website on the back burner because I didn't think it was very important and because I felt uncomfortable talking about my accomplishments in such an obvious and self-serving fashion. Recently, my view completely changed.

Anil Dash wrote a great piece about Google recently , and I think all Googlers should read it. Anil makes several good points, including this one: I doubt Google's internal self-image as an organization has changed to reflect this new reality. "We're not like some giant company with flashy TV ads â?" we're just a bunch of geeks in Mountain View!" And while that might be true for the vast number of engineers who define the company's internal culture,

Lots of people are writing about the economic secret that is the free pricepoint : As Anderson himself says, "I've got a lot of kids and college isn't getting any cheaper." His own strategy, one outlined by Dyson way back when, is to charge little or nothing for his writing and use it to generate lucrative speaking gigs. "You can read a copy of this book online (abundant, commodity information) for free,