The Cheap Revolution

20 Must Have Resources for Internet Marketers

Internet Marketing Tools/Software & Tools to Help Marketers

HubSpot – HubSpot is a powerful, web-based online marketing system that helps small and medium sized businesses capture and convert more qualified sales leads by an optimized web presence.  We like HubSpot because it is robust, easy to use, and they provide great support as well as a lot of opportunities to learn more about Internet marketing. Definitely a must-have if you’re a marketer who works with small or medium sized businesses. You can test drive HubSpot for 7 days.

Constant Contact – As a marketer, you know you need a “mix” of marketing activities to accomplish your marketing objectives. E-mail marketing is still a viable method of reaching your Internet marketing goals. We still use Constant Contact and we’re pretty happy with it. If you’re not sure, you can sign up for a free trial. Read also: 7 Alternatives to Constant Contact here.

Wordtracker – if you’re serious about keyword research, Wordtracker is an investment you need to make. Not only will your keyword research get done faster, but Wordtracker helps you find the most profitable and competitive keywords and you’re able to save your keyword research by project. They have annual and monthly subscriptions as well as a free trial. There are many keyword research tools out there, but Wordtracker is definitely one of our favorites.

Huddle – Managing your Marketing projects with Huddle is a snap! Huddle offers online collaboration, live conferencing, project management software and document sharing. There are five packages – from FREE to enterprise. Depending on what you need, it can be a cost-efficient way to manage your marketing projects. We use Huddle to keep track of our clients and marketing projects and continue to be pleased with the service.

Radian 6 – if you’re an Internet Marketer using Social Media, then you know how important it is to monitor and measure community engagement. Radian6 is a powerful platform that is comprehensive and easy to use. It’s a must have if you’re serious about social media!

Premium Marketing Resources

Market Motives – Get online marketing certified in SEO, PPC, Web Analytics, PR, Social Media, E-mail Marketing, and more.

Marketing Sherpa – Premium membership gets you case studies, how-to guides, research reports, certifications, and more.

Marketing Profs – Paid membership gets you access to marketing articles, case studies, videos, webinars, discounts on conferences, etc.

SEOMoz – Becoming a PRO member gives you access to a host of SEO-related tools. A must-have if you’re into search engine optimization.

eMarketing Association – Paid membership gets you resources, discounts on seminars, reports, whitepapers, articles, and a lot more.

Internet Marketing Books

Inbound Marketing: Get Found on Google, Social Media, and Blogs - a how-to guide to getting found via Google, the blogosphere, and social media sites.

The Art of SEO (Theory in Practice) – If you are new to SEO, you'll get a complete and thorough SEO education, as well as an array of effective tactics, from basic to advanced. Seasoned practitioners will find this book useful as a complete reference to SEO best practices.

Socialnomics: how social media transforms the way we live and do business – an essential book for anyone who wants to understand the implications of social media, and how businesses can tap the power of social media to increase their sales, cut their marketing costs, and reach consumers directly.

Trust Agents – Written by marketing rock stars Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, this book shows you how to tap into the power of social networks to build your brand's influence, reputation, and, of course, profits.

Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity – As an Internet marketer, you know the importance of web analytics. This book provides specific recommendations for creating an actionable strategy, applying analytical techniques correctly, and solving challenges such as measuring social media and multichannel campaigns.

Internet Marketing Conferences in 2010

Affiliate Summit West – January 17^th to 19^th in Las Vegas, NV

Social Media Conference – January 28^th & 29^th in Miami, FL

Search Marketing Expo West – March 2^nd to 4^th in Santa Clara, CA

South by Southwest Interactive – March 12^th to 16^th in Austin, TX

Business to Business Forum – May 4^th to 5^th in Boston, MA

Probing my Social Network - what came back?

What  is your topmost reason for using Social Media? 

Search? 

Sales? 

Relationship? 

Build credentials? 

Recruiting? 

POV? 

Helping? 

Other? 

Two weeks ago, I posed these questions across my Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer and LinkedIn.  I wanted to see what my network and reach was like for a random question.  The rest of this post illustrates some of the dialogue that arose in each of the channels.  

From FaceBook: 

Hey again everyone. Thanks again for participating. To answer Kevin's question... What is My Topmost Reason for using SM? 

To embrace my humanity more fully.

From LinkedIn:

Thanks to all of you for your responses. I have responded to most of you directly, although I didn't get a chance to respond to Steven T. Smith yet... which I'll include here. Steven called me out on this - and I agree that the question was deliberately vague. By leaving it vague, I was hoping to get a bit of an "ink-blot interpretation" response to the question... and each person had a unique take on the question. 

I also ran the exact same question across Yammer, Twitter, my blog, Facebook and here on LInkedIn. It was meant as a quick experiment to help me flesh out some some frameworks I'm putting together about human communication. (I think my friend Rick might have been running a similar experiment concurrently and hope to hear his findings!) Thank you for your insights and participation.

The early results are shared below. However, the responses not only helped to identify the wide range of potential uses of Social Media, but highlighted the different nature of some of the channels. For example, I received 3 Twitter responses in less than 30 minutes and then nothing. LinkedIn and Facebook responses continue to roll in after 24 hours. The LinkedIn responses were the most detailed and nuanced. I didn't receive any responses on my blog :-/. The size of my personal reach is different across each of these mediums - as is the strength of my relationships. While I personally know all 14 respondents in Facebook, I only personally know 1 of the LinkedIn respondents. 

Where am I going with all of this? I'm pursuing the perspective that "Social Media", Social Networking, Professional Networking, etc. all fall under the umbrella of Human Communication. The Social Media umbrella is just a set of "conversation extenders". If we start to look at them from this perspective, we can map out how the different media relate to each other, serve different purposes for different audiences - so that we can each create maps tailored to the demands of our most important conversations. 

So... here are the initial results of my little experiment. 

Twitter - 3 responses (all within 30 minutes) - relationship (stay in touch), listening, learning, sharing loves/gripes, sharing ideas, building company brand (FB, Twitter, Blog)

Yammer - 1 response (relationships, POV, credentials, search, drive sales, branding, thought leadership, listen to clients)

LinkedIn - 5 responses (recruiting, sales, promoting awareness, event notification, sharing resources, tracking business network, (email, YahooGroups), job leads, connecting with partners, market testing, feedback, recruiting, credential building, search)

Facebook - 14 responses (relationship, cheese, gossip, dating, reconnecting (FB), follow influencers, broadening relationship, family relationship/updates, deepening business relationships)

Blog - 0 responses

With gratitude to those who already participated!

How about you?  What would you add to this list?