'If you read the news about a recent WordPress hacker who targeted a massive number of WordPress blogs, relax. Chances are, yours wasn’t one of them. What you should know is that there are two WordPresses. There’s WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The former hosts blogs much like Blogger.com. The latter is a software that you download and install on your own server. If you installed WordPress on a server at your hosting company (Hostgator, BlueHost, SBM, etc.), then you weren’t targeted by this hacker. You have no worries. MORE >>

As a marketer, and as a social media consultant, I get a little defensive whenever someone says anything negative about my profession. But Shel Israel recently had a thoughtful post on marketing and social media at Forbes. One thing he said in particular threw me for a loop. Organizations are back to measuring social media programs in terms of ROI, which makes as little sense as determining the ROI of wearing clothing to a business meeting. There are just some things that have obvious value, but are very hard to measure in dollar value. If you think about it, this makes sense. MORE >>

There are tens of thousands of blogs that are suddenly finding they no longer ranks in search results. The reason is quite clear – Google has well and truly slapped several link/blog networks and the results have been startling. Some small business owners are suddenly finding themselves ranking well for their major keywords. It’s taken a long time, and too a certain extent, the problem has been one of Google’s own doing. For years, link/blog networks have been able to dominate a wide range of keywords – and the search engines have done nothing. MORE >>

Open your email on any given day and you will probably see a lot of emails from restaurants, Wal-Mart and others. For instance, I opened an email from Red Lobster a couple of days ago and had a coupon for a Lobster dinner (my favorite!). Of course, I printed it and will go. That my friends, is email marketing. Email marketing campaigns, according to some skeptics is dead. But it is not. Many people subscribe to these emails especially for the coupons. Groupon, for instance, has many coupons to print and it saves a ton of money. In today’s economy, every little bit helps. MORE >>

Don’t sweat it if you have been marketing yourself online and not been using Twitter. There are good solid reasons to use Twitter for marketing and it’s never too late to get started. Here are 5 solid reasons to include Twitter in your online marketing efforts. Twitter now uses autocomplete. This is a search feature, so what does it have to do with marketing? If you’re looking for topics to blog about, the autocomplete feature can save you a lot of money. Search for people you follow. Here’s another new feature that Twitter offers. Hashtags. Build relationships. MORE >>