Internet Marketing 101: History, Strategy & Tactics

Doing your research before you start a new task invariably leads to better results in less time. The same is true for Internet marketing. I've seen a lot of folks charge forth with new websites and social media presences without any Internet marketing 101 research, and then they wonder why their campaign didn't go anywhere.

I had a recent opportunity to present on Internet marketing, and I turned it into an Internet marketing 101 that covers the history, basic strategies and tactics of Internet marketing.

Turn Online Marketing Strategies into New Business is a presentation I gave at the Wausau, WI Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Week 2011, sponsored by Rasmussen College (note: I work for them). In my opinion, every Internet marketing crash course should involve at least three major ideas:

1. Modern Media History - Internet marketing is different in many ways from traditional marketing. Three important concepts that have shifted consumer media consumption are attention, permission and trust.
2. Internet Marketing Strategy - Every Internet marketing strategy needs to cover several main objectives. I find it's best to have a mental framework, summed up by the ideas of identifying, listening, creating, sharing and measuring.
3. Internet Marketing Tactics - Websites, blogs and social media all present different opportunities, strengths and challenges within your marketing campaign. Which channels should you be using and in what capacity?

If you're looking for a good Internet marketing 101, feel free to use video or download the slides from the event, or view the complete transcript from the recent Wausau Internet marketing event for small businesses.

Internet Marketing 101 Video:

Internet Marketing 101 Presentation:

Turn New Marketing Strategies into New Business

View more presentations from Josh Braaten

Introducing a Podcast by and for Squarespacers

A few months ago I canvassed the Squarespace community to gauge interest in a podcast about Squarespace, the amazing web-publishing software upon which this blog is built. There was enough excitement and demand to warrant the creation of one, so today I'm happy to announce the launch of an unofficial Squarespace podcast, Content, Structure & Style. 

Content, Structure & Style is a twenty-to-thirty minute, (approximately) bi-weekly show by and for the Squarespace community. I'm hosting alongside two very talented designers on the Squarespace platform, Alan Houser of Creative Component and Eric Anderson of Esquareda.com. With over ten years of industry experience each, neither Alan nor Eric are strangers to Squarespace or podcasts. (Check out their other podcasting projects, CreativeXpert Design Interviews and Workers of the Web.)

In each episode, we'll be talking about tips, strategies and client stories on the Squarespace platform. For example, our inaugural episode delves into the intracacies of the client hand-off phase of any Squarespace website design project. We promise to cover much more Squarespace territory in future episodes.

If you'd like us to cover one of your questions about Squarespace on the show, submit your questions here, send us a tweet at @Squareshow or leave a voicemail at 317-53-SQUARE. The show is nothing if not for the Squarespacer, so please do give us a shout.

What do you think about a Squarespace podcast? Would you listen? Is every other week just right or would you listen more or less frequently? Finally, feel free to leave any suggestions for future shows in the comments.

Exploring Squarespace Version 6 and the Future of Squarespace

Squarespace has been growing since its founding in 2003. Over the years there have been five major versions with a series of core updates. Squarespace version 5 was released in the summer of 2008 and while it has served the Squarespace customer base well over the least several years, the calls for an upgrade to Squarespace v6 are growing. This week we take a look at what is known about Squarespace version 6 and why it may be a game changer for the small, yet growing web publishing company.

Why Squarespace Version 6 Will Be Huge

As a follower of Squarespace news, it's clear to me that the next version of Squarespace will be an amazing upgrade to the already excellent web publishing platform. A number of factors are working in favor of Squarespace v6 include:

• Suprising the Users. Squarespace founder and CEO Anthony Casalena said in January on This Week in Startups that they look to create loyal fans by "surprising the user" with a great web publishing experience. Version 6 won't just be a slight upgrade. Expect to be surprised.
• Serious Funds for a Great Product. Squarespace received $38.5 Million in July of 2010 in venture capital from Accel Partners and Index Ventures. These are the giants that helped launch the likes of Facebook and Skype. You can bet they know a good product when they see it and will do what it takes to help take it to the next level.
• The Luxury of Time. Although calls for version six are growing in number within the Squarespace community, Squarespace has been able to depend on version 5 of its software since releasing it coming up on three years ago. In that time it has been able to grow in a number of different ways and take the time to focus on making a quality product in the upgrade to Squarsepace version 6.

What We Know So Far About Squarespace Version 6

While there hasn't been an official list of features announced for Squarespace's v6, there have been a number of statements made by Squarespace officials over time that illustrate what has been going on behind the scenes of the well-funded New York City start-up:

• Infrastructure. Casalena cited a large infrastructure update as a major part of the v6 intitiative in a March 2010 Squarespace Roadmap blog post. These changes will likely help Squarespace scale as it takes off in popularity, as well as enable them to make more updates in the future with less effort.
• Template Flexibility and Portability. Squarespace V6 will allow developers to create and port templates from website to website, according to the 2010 Roadmap. It's easy to imagine an entire market of Squarespace templates cropping up with a change this big.
• Deeper Developer Control. In November of 2010, Casalena provided another update on V6. This time he  also mentioned entirely new datatypes and editing interfaces. Squarespace users should anticipate much more control of the page templates of V6.
• Major Media Improvements. Casalena also mentioned a new way of controlling and managing photo galleries. Although he said this feature is a mid-term project, I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a centerpiece of the v6 update. 
• Mobile. Casalena's This Week in Startups appearance in January saw him revealing several features of Squarespace v6, such as the fact that Squarspace websites will have a native mobile format with the upgrade to version 6.
• Six Major Initiatives. In a statement released to my friends over at OkayGeek, Casalena hinted that version six includes six major initiatives.

The Squarespace V6 Timeline: 

• July, 2008 - Squarespace V5 is released.
• February, 2009 - Squarespace V6 prototype built.
• October, 2009 - Squarespace V6 storyboards nears completion. Engineering set to begin.
• March, 2010 - Founder Anthony Casalena publishes the Squarespace 2010 Roadmap. 
• July, 2010 - Squarespace receives $38.5 Million from Accel Partners and Index Ventures
• November 2010 - Major engineering underway at the core of Squarespace during the Fall 2010 update.
• February, 2011 - Anthony Casalena appears on This Week in Startups and mentions accelerated progress on v6. 
• March 2011 - Anthony Casalena alludes v6 is nearing completion during Stated Magazine interview.
• March, 2011 - Squarespace feeds thousands at SXSW Interactive marketing conference.
• ??? - Squarespace releases Version 6.

What's Next for Squarespace Version 6?

We now have a decent idea of what to expect with Squarspace's v6. The only question remaining is when will Squarespace release version 6? It's clear that Casalena has never liked making timelines public. In the This Week in Startups interview he mentions liking flexiblity in the release schedule in case something more important comes up.

But in the same interview he also stated having a renewed focus and improvements in progress on finishing version 6. In the Stated Magazine interview he says "I feel like Squarespace v6 is the best thing we've ever produced." Produced is past tense. Does this mean that Squarespace v6 is right around the corner? Only time will tell.

What do you think will be in Squarespace v6 and when do you think it will be released? Have you heard about specific features included in v6 that I haven't included in this post? Leave your updates and opinions in the comments below.

Why Creating Great Content Isn't Enough

Just create great content. It's a phrase that's used by search engine optimization (SEO) amateurs and pros alike to describe what it takes to get Google to bless your humble blog or website with more search engine traffic.

So what's my problem with the advice?  It's been bugging me lately because rarely is just creating great content the end of the optimization process. It's a great start, but you may be the only one admiring your great content if that's all you do.

Great Content is Not Enough for Google

Even Google will tell you that there's more to SEO than great content. They've listed a Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide on their SEO resource page of Google Webmaster Center. As they describe it:

Search engine optimization is about putting your site's best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines, but your ultimate consumers are your users, not search engines.

- Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Of course, Google supports the idea of providing value for your human users, but they also highlight changes you can make specifically for search engines. Changes that go beyond just creating great content. 

In fact, Google goes on to list 32 pages full of specific changes you should make to your website specifically for the benefit of Google and visitors. Here are just a few of the things Google recommends:

• Creating unique and specific page titles and descriptions for every page on your website. 
• Building two sitemaps of your site, one for users and one specifically for search engines
• Planning a website URL structures that employ keyword strategies
• Using anchor text appropriately when linking
• Optimizing website images for search
• Using robots.txt and the rel="nofollow" for certain types of links

Some of these changes have very little to do with the quality of your content. 

SEO is About More than Creating Great Content

Ultimately, SEO is about learning about all the keywords and phrases people are using to find your products or services, developing a plan to strategically use the keywords on specific pages on your website, and then creating, measuring and promoting the best possible content to solve the problems or answer the questions of searchers.

My point in all of this is to illustrate that SEO is not as easy as some would make it seem. Countless bloggers begin and end their blogging careers under the false assumption that if you build it, they will come. A lackluster approach to planning or content strategy litters the blogosphere with blogs that never did manage to garner search traffic, despite what I'm sure was excellent content.

Success in search requires an investment in either SEO education or skill, depending on whether you have more time or money. SEO is ultimately a marketing expense. If you're not willing to overcome the learning curve or pay a professional to help you along the way, your great content may not be enough.

What are you doing beyond creating great content to help increase the amount of search engine traffic to your website or blog? Are you following Google's SEO Starter Guide? (Squarespacers, help yourself to some custom Squarespace SEO education right here on this blog.). What changes do you want to make your website that go beyond creating great content? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Would You Listen to a Squarespace Podcast?

Each day, more and more people discover Squarespace's powerful yet simple website publishing platform and decide to host their blog or website with Squarespace. And as the community grows, so does the need for its members to connect and learn in new ways. A podcast is one such way for online communities to connect. Today we explore the idea of a Squarespace podcast by and for Squarespace users and ask for your input on how to make it rock.

There are tens of thousands of Squarespace users according to founder Anthony Casalena during a recent interview on This Week in Startups. Two of those users happen to be designer/developers Alan Houser and Eric Anderson. In addition to having built dozens of Squarespace websites, Alan and Eric also host the always-entertaining Workers of the Web podcast.  

Recently they invited me to start a new Squarespace-centric podcast with them, combining their talent as Squarespace designers with my background in online marketing. Our goal will be to help the Squarespace community to the best of our collective abilities and to have fun along the way.

And on that note, here's where you can help. Spare two minutes of your time and complete the survey below. Tell us what you think of the idea and how we can make it amazing.

Eric, Alan and I look forward to sharing more details with you about the Squarespace podcast in the near future. In the meantime, please take the survey so we can be sure to plan for your preferences.