Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008

Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008

Today is my birthday, and I decided to give you all a gift that few of you have been highly anticipating for a few months now. My most popular post on this site — probably by far — was last year’s Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2007 compilation. I spent about 3 days (and nights) on it (without sleep) and I was quite happy with the turnout. This year, I began starting to write this compilation in the first week of December. The collection begins with posts that start in January of 2008 and have been collected and shared in the last 12 months. Like last year, I’ve grouped them into different categories and written short descriptions on each post. There’s no order to the posts; I’ve used my bookmarks and a variety of social sites and peer recommendations to create this list. I hope this year’s list surpasses last year’s. Let me know how I did in the comments. 😉

Here’s how this works: In the Internet Marketing Best Posts “series,” I take posts that are typically timeless — they’re not confined to a specific event or news occurrence — they’re valuable for the long haul in terms of Internet Marketing and creative strategy. Hopefully, you’ll see that these posts are still relevant in a few years down the road.

These posts range from beginner to advanced with a greater emphasis on the more intermediate posts. I’d argue that if you’re starting your Internet Marketing business with not much know-how, you should check out the 2007 posts; in fact, most may still find them relevant regardless of the skill level.

New for 2008: If your article is highlighted in this comprehensive post, we have badges for you! Feel free to link to this post with the top right hand image, which was contributed by David Mihm who specializes in Portland Web Design. Every post is a winner!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

Social Media: Generic Strategy:

Social Media: Strategy for Social Sites:

Twitter:

Sphinn:

  • Beginner’s Guide to Sphinn: Surely there are some of you out there who have never used Sphinn before, but if you are remotely interested in this post, you can imagine that half of the posts I put here were also submitted to Sphinn.? That said, join up and read this Problogger post for some rules of engagement.
  • Top 10 Signs You’re Spamming Sphinn gives you more insights into how to use social news sites properly.
  • Crappy MP3 Sites, Comment Spamming & Enough Already: Danny Sullivan rants about how there are “search marketers” trying to manipulate Sphinn (and other social news sites). He explores examples and shows how hard it is to be a moderator of a site like this. Hey, I hear you.
  • An Analysis of Sphinn: 175 Homepage Homeruns Dissected: This post shows you what people are loving on Sphinn.? It also somewhat correlates to the categories on this post since some topics just happen to be a lot more popular than others.

LinkedIn:

Digg:

  • How to Level the Playing Field with Digg: While I personally don’t like Digg anymore and find that it’s useless for marketers, Skellie think it’s still valuable. (I’d argue “rarely” nowadays.)
  • How I Became a Digg Power User with a 75% Popular Ratio: I got banned in October from Digg with a 67% popular ratio and 278 front page stories and offered very similar tips in 2007, but some people still want to use Digg for this kind of thing.? Personally, I think Digg will ban you when you get popular.? The guy who wrote this blog post speaks from the same kind of experience.

Wikipedia:

  • Using Wikipedia to Reveal Web Traffic Data: Jonathan Hochman writes a piece on how, when using Wikipedia, you can find out about how much traffic a top search ranking will send.
  • How to Overthrow a Wikipedia Result: This is a good tactic but you should use it in moderation!? Don’t get caught!
  • Wikipedia 101 for Marketing: The awesome Todd Defren explains how you can use Wikipedia to market your business.? But as many of you who have attended SEO conferences know, don’t do it from your company IP address or face the banhammer.
  • 3 Awesome Wikipedia Tools and How they Could be Useful: I’ve never really known of any real good Wikipedia tools except for WikiScanner until this post (and this post doesn’t even talk about that IP scanner program).? ? So there you have it — 4 tools for your Wikipedia enjoyment.
  • What to do When Your Company Wikipedia Page Goes Bad: The problem with editing your own company page when you work for the company is that there are moderation issues and biases.? So what can you do once someone adds bad content to that page?? Jessica Bowman tells you how to make the nasties “fade into the background.”

StumbleUpon:

Fark:

Facebook:

delicious:

Flickr:

  • How to Market on Flickr: While Flickr itself isn’t seen as a community that you would market to, you can find out how to become a respected community member AND market your services as well.
  • An Insider’s Guide to Marketing on Flickr: Rohit Bhargava gives some very detailed tips on how you can use Flickr to successfully market products.

FriendFeed:

  • FriendFeed Can Disrupt Search and Reshape Advertising: Steve Rubel offers his initial impressions of FriendFeed.
  • 25 Different Uses for FriendFeed: FriendFeed power users Michael Fruchter and Louis Gray team up (well, Mike posted the guest post on Louis’s blog) to share some tips on how you can get the most out of this service.? As an FYI, I LOVE FriendFeed (and as another FYI, I said the same about Twitter in 2007 and everyone joined up in 2008.? Just sayin’).? By the way, Louis has a ton of great posts on FriendFeed on his blog and this isn’t the only one.

Blogging:

Viral Marketing:

Link Building:

Reputation Management:

Analytics:

Personal Branding:

Local Search:

Content Development:

Web Development:

Affiliate Marketing:

Domains and Domaining:

AdWords/PPC:

Internet Marketing:

General Marketing:

Best of Techipedia 2008
I typically don’t put posts from my blog in the “Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008” list, but this year, since I’ve grown a considerable number of subscribers, I’ve decided to give new users the opportunity to read the two best posts without feeling that they need to dig through the archives.? Of course, if you don’t mind reading the other posts I’ve written, by all means, go ahead.? There’s some good stuff there that I’m not highlighting here (including two on FriendFeed, which is a great content discovery and community building tool which simply doesn’t get much love).

Thanks again to the Portland Web Design company for their awesome badges (and to Jill for the idea).? Also, thanks for all your contributions to this series.? Stay tuned for next year’s!

Badges: If you would like to use any alternative badges on your site, please choose one of the below and copy the corresponding text on your website:




Happy 2009!

More from Tamar Weinberg
Spotting the Disturbing Digg Trends — Time to Move On?
Digg, among its other flaws, is banning domains left and right --...
Read More
243 replies on “Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2008”
  1. says: Bloggeries

    This must of taken forever to find all these bloggeries. Thanks for doing the work for us it’s a great list and even better link bait! 😉 Tweeting it now.

  2. says: Shana Albert

    I was so looking forward to this post and it certainly didn’t let me down.

    I’m thrilled to be included in a couple here…. thank you so much!!

    Happy Birthday, Tamar.

  3. I haven’t started to read the list yet, but I just want to thank you on your effort to compile this list, that must’ve had been very long and painful process.
    Very Much Appreciated !

  4. says: sam

    Thanks Tamar. Now I have my 2009 reading to do. I hope I will end this giga list in time for next years list.

  5. Tamar – Thanks for the roundup! So much here to absorb. I hopped over via Jason Falls’ Twitter – and was so happy to see my linking secrets post included here 🙂 That post has been incredibly popular at my site, and 10 months later is still bringing in a steady stream of StumbleUpon traffic – goes to show you the power of social media tools.

    Thanks for taking the time to compile this list!

  6. says: Afzal

    Happy B’day Tamar…..It’s the best collection of 2008.

    I think now I don’t need to look at any other source. Thanks for all your efforts in compiling this.

    Cheer’s

  7. says: Craig

    Excellent resource. Thank you for posting — it’ll take us till 2010 to read through them all!

    I hadn’t seen Seth Godin’s post re: viral yet, so that (so far) has been the most interesting link in the list to me.

    I would love for “viral” to be redefined. It means something very specific, and most people say “viral” when they mean “organic” or “grassroots.” I think it’s been used so badly for so long, though, we may be stuck with what we’ve got. More ruminations about this over here:

    http://www.lohad.com/?p=2215

    Happy New Year!

  8. says: steaprok

    Happy Bday Tamar! Extremely informative and extensive post. you have highlighted a lot of great articles I had not seen ,thanks for the hard work.

  9. says: Matt Siltala

    Tamar – Happy Birthday! You know we are geeks when we do this kind of stuff on our birthday huh? This is a great list, and thanks for including my local marketing post along side some of the most amazing articles and other bloggers online!

  10. says: pavneet

    great post tamir,

    a great compilation of links. this post was a real treat. you really know wat we want.

    n hey read some thing on http://www.makemyweek.com/ along the same lines(best internet posts of the week). i loved that 2.

    I look forward to reading more of your posts!

    and happy birthday tamir

  11. says: Michael Gass

    Tamar,

    This is a fantastic resource list. Thank you for all of the hard work in developing such a comprehensive resource list for internet marketing. I’ve already provided a link from my blog, FUEL LINES as a resource for my audience, small-to midsize advertising agencies and PR firms.

  12. says: Andy Komack

    Tamar – great list and a definite bookmark (because there is no way I’ll get through all of this even after two passes). Thanks for including me here. I continue to follow you on Twitter and look forward to reading more from you in 2009.

    – Andy

  13. says: Derek Edmond

    Awesome list and thanks very much for including me & our company as part of these resources! Here’s looking to an even bigger and better 2009!

  14. Hi Tamar, thank you for listing my blog entry on 7 Social Media Websites and their Impact on SEO. It truly is an honor to be mentioned alongside some extremely talented people.

  15. says: Shari Voigt

    Happy Birthday, Tamar!
    Thanks for putting this comprehensive resource list together. I’m thrilled to be a part of it! I’ve found several highly useful links in each category – will be sure to bookmark and share.

  16. I am bookmarking, passing on by email and tweeting this post. Excellent work Tamar. It certainly shows one of the powerful uses of bookmarking – since you collected this information by bookmarking it. We assume you had to do quite a bit of editing too – thank you so much for the effort.

    May I add a request for 2009? It is hard to find good social media tips about MySpace. I have one client for which I have to use this platform (among others of course). http://myspace.com/singelringen It DOES drive traffic if your product appeals to the demographic that lives there. I can’t be the only one.

    Happy Birthday, Happy New Year and wishing you a prosperous, healthy 2009.

  17. says: Joe Moodie

    Hear ye! Hear ye! As Operations Manager for an Internet Marketing company I hereby proclaim this a mandatory bookmark.

    Editor’s note: Links have been removed. Akismet caught all of them as spam. Plus, there were 3 multiple comments promoting the same thing.

  18. says: rheen

    You make an amazing resource,but why not try to click in this site the [redacted] faster and more affordable site.

    Editor’s note: I remove spam from my comments.

  19. says: Jon Rognerud

    Whoa! Over the top, as I like to say! Thanks so much for including my blog and the awesome interview with Aaron, he IS the man, indeed.

    Happy New Year!

    Rog on, – Jon

  20. I have read this post. This is very much true. I run a part time internet marketing business
    I have been collecting many material on internet marketing and checking out Jeff Paul’s
    internet marketing tactics. I hope that we can keep each other’s contacts so I can
    discuss my problems Even I own a blog account. I will mention your post in my blog.

  21. says: Gennice

    Now these kind of posts are getting mass linked to… I will share this post on any social website i know… This is something people should learn and apply for amazing success..
    I tried many of these tactics and tips and i got traffic tripled in less than a month!

    Thanks!!!

  22. says: Alysson

    Wow! Well done, Tamar! I know what I’ll be reading for the next…well…until further notice. 🙂

    This post is now the “Post Of The Week” (yes…I used your badge). 😉

  23. says: jordanjak

    wow! nice article on online marketing, very well explained about online marketing really very interesting.thanks for sharing such a good information.

  24. Pingback: Et godt link
  25. says: vijay

    I need at-least a month to read all articles.
    But I don’t mind spending this time if I am going to get something valuable 🙂

  26. says: Rich

    What a great birthday blow-out! The list maintained to balance the necessity of each view, no matter their online status is.

    Thanks for sharing. Happy Birthday!

  27. Tamar,
    Thank you so much for this compilation. I know how much time and thought goes into a post like this. I intend to tweet this and use it personally, as well, to learn how I can optimize social media tools.
    If you are interested in a roundup of Social Media Etiquette by network, I have compiled a list here: http://communityorganizer20.wordpress.com/2009/01/12/social-media-etiquette-roundup-understanding-cultural-norms/
    Thanks, and I’m now following you on twitter and RSS!
    Debra

  28. Thanks so much for the information. Appreciate the effort you put behind this compilation. I’m following you in Twitter now and looking forward to your posts.
    Best,
    Javierjrdg

  29. says: CMD

    Amazing!? I will say I am little baffled by the reach and depth of this post. But I guess you did have an entire year to work on it, hu?

    Kudos. Here’s to foresight and collecting valuable data.

  30. CMD, yep, like I said, I spend a lot of time collecting the posts over the course of the year and then I compile them for this yearly post 🙂 I don’t blog here often since most of my posts take 15+ hours to research/write. Glad you liked it 🙂

  31. says: Kristina

    Thank you very much Tamar !!!!!! Here is all what I need in a one place.I appreciate it and wish you always have time to keep us informed 🙂

  32. says: Gayan

    Wow, really great post, Tamar. You brought together all the best articles, to get all the info in one place. Imressive and very useful post.

  33. says: Dan_N

    Wow this is one great list, I sure have a lot of reading ahead of me although most of the stuff I know already I am sure there is a lot I can learn from still. Thanks and great blog.

  34. says: Michael

    Much like Mr. McGee’s SEO pyramid – this post contains WAY too much information.

    You get an A for effort though, Jesus Christ that must have been some work compiling this thing.

  35. says: djskyler

    Thanks, Tamar! This post is absolutely monolithic in scope. And good SEO practice supplying us with the badges too, I’ve immediately added one on my blog’s sidebar.

  36. says: Lucinda Wright

    Thank you for compiling this list of resources. This has made my job so much easier to have it all in one place.

  37. says: Ricky C

    Lots of useful tips are there, Thanks so much for listing them up. If you can give more update to this list, then that one will be much more appreciated 🙂

  38. Even though it’s very late, I had to wish you a happy birthday. Especially since it was the day after mine. You should always celebrate your birthday for a full two months!

    Again, happy belated B-day!

    Misty Faucheux
    Social Media/Community Relations Manager, Viscape.com

  39. says: Anna Green

    There is certainly a lot! of reading here, but already i can see a few articles that im sure will be of interest to me… especially, 30 Ways to Get Links Naturally and Stop Link Building. Thanks for the three sleepless nights just so you could share, oh and happy birthday.

  40. says: Capt Vlad Nikolskiy

    Hi, Tamar,
    please, do not consider my comment as off-top, I really expect to get reply/ tips. What do you think, bloggers writing in Russia, can take a part in any competions, award programmes, or we have to wait when something similar will be in Russia (if it will be)?
    Thanks in advance for your opinion.

  41. Vlad, I’m not sure why I approved your comment since it’s not really relevant to the post at all nor do I even have the answer. I don’t even know competitions in the US. Might you ask via Twitter or some other channel that is a little more relevant? How is my post related to your inquiry at all?

    Ironically, this is a unique comment, so it went in, but I still do have my doubts on why I approved it.

  42. says: Jon Mac

    This is the best post I’ve read this year. I’m not sure why it took so long for me to come across it. Thanks A million. I’m forwarding it to my teammates here at Social Focus. A must read for anyone working with social media.

    Jonathan Mac
    Social Networking Software

  43. says: sikis

    I hopped over via Jason Falls’ Twitter – and was so happy to see my linking secrets post included here 🙂 That post has been incredibly popular at my site, and 10 months later is still bringing in a steady stream of StumbleUpon traffic – goes to show you the power of social media tool…

  44. says: Best Online Marketing

    nice article on online marketing, very well explained about online marketing really very interesting.thanks for sharing such a good information.

    Try also this web for more information
    [Editor’s note: edited!] best-online-marketing.co.cc

  45. says: Wim

    I wish i had found this article months ago, there is so much info here that it looks like a gold mine.
    Needless to say, it is bookmarked and I will spend lots of time here.
    Good luck, fantastic work.

  46. Juan, wow, in my 4 years of having this blog live, nobody has asked that. Best way to do this is to subscribe to the site via RSS and use the email option in Google Reader or the RSS reader of your choice. You would have gotten a daily digest if you subscribed to the blog via email as well.

    Sorry those methods are a bit circular for now. I definitely need to look into how to make it easier!

  47. Juan – it will also live online forever, so you can feel free to access this whenever you want. I actually just realized you commented on the post from 2008 so you won’t easily get the RSS via the methods I outlined earlier.

  48. says: juan yepes

    Thanks Tamar! I know my question is a bit weird but I think this info is completely useful for all of us that work on marketing every day.

    I also wanted to put my comment in the 2009 compilation, but I mixed it up and put it here… lol.

    Greetings from Colombia anyway!

  49. Awesome – just found this post. Its funny how in a fast paced industry like seo, just how much of these links / content is still correct and relevant. Esp loved the SEOBook.com article on “What is a #1 Google Ranking Worth?” as I had been looking for a good answer to that question. NIce work.

    1. I can’t imagine it’s going to be easy! Try thinking about how hard it was for me to gather all those posts, Alex, and you’ll see where I came from. 🙂

      If you think this is bad, you should see 2009’s list.

  50. says: TV

    I need at-least a month to read all articles.
    But I don’t mind spending this time if I am going to get something valuable 🙂

  51. says: T Hanhsen

    Wow, Tamar! That´s a great list!!! Thanks for the tipps.

    Edited: Glad to hear, but edited your name AND site as per my blog policy. I guess it’s better to do that than mark your comment and IP as spam, huh? 😉

  52. says: Dave

    Yes a real good article. Thanks for sharing.

    Editor’s note: And again, Dave, you violated my blog policy, where I have asked you to use your real name. Thanks again for playing!

  53. says: DKB

    Huge Thank you to building this list. What is with a list for 2010?!

    Editor’s note: You can check my site and you’ll see when I post the yearly posts – not until January. In any event, I also edited your comment since you violated my blog policy and I reserve the right to edit your links and name as a result. Thanks for playing!

  54. says: Gist

    Wow, that is Huge! Really thank you very much for that info!

    Editor’s note: Thanks for your comments. However, as stated in my blog policy, I have asked you to use your real name. I do not think your name is Gist and have edited your URL as explained in the blog policy.

  55. Amazing resource, I love looking back through the best marketing posts from years gone by, it’s amazing the things you can pick up on! 🙂 BOOKMARKED.

  56. says: harin

    well don’t laugh – better late then never!
    Actually when I was searching for good material for my social media project, i didn’t come across anything better. And having gone thru this now – its STILL relevant. Lot of it anyway!

  57. says: Estar

    nice ressource for research, used it for studies of old internet marketing posts. Now i can make an internal presentation of trends, and which became true for our company nowadays 🙂

  58. says: Edited

    good post, here lot of information to learn. Thanks Tamar

    Editor’s note: Thanks for the comments but your name/URL has been edited as per my blog policy.

  59. says: Keith

    Wow great list but a little lengthy IMO. I came here looking for a citation and got lost in a sea of links. I’d rather have kept the winners to a few per category instead of 5-10 each.

    1. Keith, your comment is 3 years late. Are you trying to spam my site for backlinks? If so, I have my eye on you now.

      I didn’t realize supermedia.com employs spammers like you.

  60. says: Benedict

    I must appreciation for the efforts you have made in writing this post. This has been an encouragement to me. I’ve passed this onto a friend. thankyou

  61. says: Aisha Vax

    Thank you for this amazing internet marketing posts article. This gives me a lot of recommendation. Thank you for your work, thank you for sharing.

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