M:Metrics founder Will Hodgman named KISSmetrics CEO

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Will Hodgman, who previously founded Seattle’s AdRelevance and M:Metrics, has been named chief executive officer of KISSmetrics. Hodgman was previously executive vice president of international at comScore, Inc. As CEO, Hodgman will be responsible for driving the company’s business strategy and securing and managing capital.  He continues to serve on the company’s board of directors… Read More…

10 mental traits of truly innovative leaders

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Ever since I was young I’ve always loved thinking of ways to fix things, build products and make money. And, over the years, I’ve been fortunate to have worked with so many creative and innovative people. I’m talking about people like Whitepages’ Alex Algard, Cheezburger’s Ben Huh and BuddyTV’s Andy Liu. These guys are absolute… Read More…

How to get press for your startup with these social media tips and tools

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Your small business needs advertising if it wants to survive and grow. But because you don’t have a huge budget you have to find ways to get “free advertising.” One of your best bets is to get “free press.” Free press is a game changer, and fortunately the social media revolution has really made connecting… Read More…

Why you ought to change your business model

Time to shred that old business plan? Photo via Yoppy

No matter how prepared you are for the future, how satisfied you are with your customers or how well you are positioned in the market, you may not always be on target with your business strategy, especially if the business landscape changes, which we all know will eventually happen. This means that your plans need to change… Read More…

How big brands can finally fix their massive social media problems

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It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that big brands like The Gap or CSV struggle with social media. They have so many priorities, don’t talk to the right experts and often neglect investing in the right resources when it comes to social media…so they even end up making some rookie mistakes. What should big… Read More…

What your startup ought to know about Google search updates

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If you don’t keep up with the top search engine blogs or Google’s own search blog, then you likely miss out on the news about Google’s search quality updates. You might be surprised to find out that so far in 2012, there have been three Panda rollouts and over 100 other changes in addition to… Read More…

Advanced content marketing strategies to take your brand to the next level

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You can’t be a marketing professional and NOT create content. In fact, the Content Marketing Institution said so when it published this interesting statistic: “93 percent of marketing professionals create, or plan to create content marketing as part of their overall programs in the next year.” The question is…are you creating that content in such… Read More…

6 do-or-die tactics for Facebook success in 2012

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While social sites like Pinterest and Tumblr are growing like wildfire and offering marketers plenty of opportunity to leverage new audiences, my money is still on Facebook in 2012 as the social site that will help marketers and business owners increase market share, gain new customers and ultimately generate more revenue. But it’s not as… Read More…

An advanced guide to using Instagram to build your brand

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It’s the pictures, stupid. That’s basically what the people at Facebook will tell you when it comes to the most important part of the social network. The Facebook community uploads 250 million photos a day. And 70 percent of all activities on the site revolve around pictures. And it’s that core insight behind Instagram’s success. Within… Read More…

7 common SEO mistakes you’ve been making since 1995

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As an industry, SEO has been around since 1995, born during the early days of Yahoo. It really began to grow up, however, when Google started in the early 2000s. And in the last five years it’s definitely gotten more sophisticated…and even gone somewhat mainstream. So you would think that most people understand the basics… Read More…

10 powerful branding insights that will keep your business moving forward

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Just because you’ve built a successful company doesn’t mean you can relax. Succeeding in this ever-changing business world demands that you constantly strive to get ahead…and stay ahead. Easier said than done, right? Well, the following branding insights I’m about to share with you will help you create a brand and business that grows year after… Read More…

How to make your customers love you in seven ways

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It’s not an exaggeration to say “the customer is king.” Customers are the ones who will pay your bills as they hand over their hard-earned cash in exchange for your product or service. So getting…and keeping…customers is important. But why do so many customers never return to a company or never buy a product more… Read More…

9 bootstrapping ideas for small business publicity

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Free publicity is one of the best tools that you can use to promote and grow your small business or startup. P.T. Barnum used it to grow his little circus to international fame. Thomas Edison used it to destroy his competition and become the only name in the game. And Richard Branson uses it to… Read More…

Spotify’s secret to adding 8,000 paying subscribers a day

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Ever since its U.S. debut last year, the popular music listening service Spotify has been adding 8,000 subscribers a day. And I’m not just talking about free subscribers. That’s paid subscribers. What’s their secret? It’s all in the marketing. I’ll show you what those strategies are and how to use them to promote your own product,… Read More…

How a small business can build a billion dollar brand

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Do a quick, little experiment with me. Think of your favorite big brand — could be Amazon or Virgin or Coke. Now go all the way back in history to the start of those brands. Now, what do you see? If you did the experiment right, you see the now-famous founder of the company working… Read More…

10 steps to building a brand that triples sales and grows customer loyalty

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If the past five years have taught us anything, it is that branding is more than just a web presence. A brand is a relationship between customers and a business…between customers and a product. And it’s not a simple relationship. It’s actually pretty complex with lots of moving parts. Here are ten that you must… Read More…

7 Tips: Convert readers of your blog into paying customers

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Blogs are great at making your Web site visible and findable on search engines. Most entrepreneurs can do the work themselves or hire talent to make that happen. What’s a little more difficult to pull off is actually converting those visitors and readers to customers. I understand, because when I started off in this business… Read More…

What a comedian can teach you about making $1M in 12 days

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Would you ever think that a comedian could hold the key to unlocking the secret to making a lot of money online? Believe it, because that’s exactly what Louis CK did in early December. But he didn’t just make a little money. He made a lot in a short period of time… $1 million dollars in… Read More…

Why it’s not always a good idea to give customers what they want

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There’s no denying it…customers are critical to your success. So if you’re not solving problems that they care about, then you will fail. But you can go about figuring out how to solve those problems the wrong way.  Take the company Maglite for example. It was in 1979 that Tony Maglica created and sold a… Read More…