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In 2008, we considered thousands of Internet Marketing websites for review in this newsletter. Below are our picks for the Top 9 sites
for the entire year.
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Best Internet Marketing Sites of 2008: Out of the thousands of sites considered, we chose 9 sites that:
- Offer you the shortest distance between taking action now and boosting your ROI, and
- Are emblematic of trends in Internet Marketing for 2008.
Now, without further ado, here's Co-Editor Janet Roberts with the top 9 Internet Marketing sites of 2008. Take it awaaaaay,
JR ...
1. Blog Reputation Management Tool
BlogPulse
BlogPulse tracks blog posts in real time, which means that at any given moment you can search by keyword, URL or brand name to see
who's posting about your subject. In addition to providing a graph that highlights the subject or URL's trend or "pulse" over time, this tool has an amazing feature
that you should be aware of: When you are served the results of your search, you can click on the graph at any point in time and see the actual blog posts that were
written about you.
Other features include the option to view the top keywords and trends as organized by BlogPulse, the ability to track conversations
across blogs and the ability to create and save your searches. It is offered gratis from Nielsen BuzzMetrics.
2. Twitter Tools
Twitter Mania
Twitter, the short-message service that's like instant messaging on steroids, came into its own as a business application in 2008.
Dell, online shoe retailer Zappos, Comcast and other companies use the 140-character messages (called "tweets") to monitor customer sentiment, pass on updates and
react almost instantly to problems.
This Web site collects 140+ new applications to help you grow your list of followers, make tweeting more efficient and avoid making
mistakes that could lead to instant customer backlash.
We especially like the search apps, which help you stay on top of who's saying what about you and alert you to issues that need
response without taking time away from your other responsibilities.
3. Web Optimization Tool
Browsershots
This complimentary service lets you test your Web design in 55 different combinations of Web browsers and operating systems. It's a
handy tool to see how different systems can mangle your website using nonstandard code.
Type in a Web address, select which browser/OS combinations to test, and click the button. Browsershots uses distributed computing to
test your page across a network of users, who send back screenshots showing the results.
This tool is important because your response rates are directly affected if your Web pages aren't rendering correctly in the
various browsers your customers are using.
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4. E-Commerce Shopping Cart Information
Shopping Cart Reviews
This blog covers more than 100 shopping-cart providers that offer decent options for what is usually a monthly fee.
The authors literally take these systems out for a test drive and write about their benefits, shortcomings and unique features. They
also provide a step-by-step wizard that first asks if you want to buy a cart, rent a cart or need a gateway system (which connects your current site to a
payment process). It then evaluates your specific needs and churns out a variety of options for you to consider.
5. Widget Creator
Clearspring Launchpad
Clearspring's complimentary Launchpad widget builder (in beta at time of writing) takes the "content-to-social network" route.
This do-it-yourself tool helps you turn your content into a widget, then gives you access to its integration with all the big-name social media sites such as MySpace,
FaceBook and the like.
The concept is that someone will come to your website, click the "add to MySpace" (or any other network) sharing button and launch
your widget into the viral universe. The company also provides tracking and analysis. The application is available to businesses of any size. Major clients include
The Today Show and the NBA.
You'll have to measure your own efforts carefully to see how well your widget helps you drive your business goals, but this tool will
let you experiment without having to invest a major sum.
6. Email Marketing News
The Retail Email Blog
Email marketing is one of the most important direct marketing tools for retailers. This blog tracks the email campaigns of the 100
largest online retailers every single day. If you are not an etailer, you will still find much to learn about email marketing here.
The coverage ranges from the micro to the macro. On the micro level, the "Subjectivity Scanner" lists the subject lines of all the
email messages received on a particular day. Moving beyond today, you will find roundups of the most popular content for a particular week or month. This can help
you plan your campaigns better, either to piggyback on what your competitors are doing or to market against the flow.
You will also find regular analysis of individual retailers in email action, including their marketing messages and strategy and how
they have evolved over time.
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7. Survey Creator
SurveyGizmo
One way to engage visitors and find out how they feel about your site experience is to ask them directly. SurveyGizmo does just that.
You can structure your surveys in many ways, including polls, quizzes, landing pages and even mobile marketing campaigns. Extensive analytics and reporting features
are included.
At time of writing, a basic account was available at no cost. This is an actual working account (as opposed to a test account) that
allows you to gather 250 responses per month on an ongoing basis. Pricing for larger survey needs is available at the site.
8. Google Tool
Google Trends
This tool shows you the most popular searches on Google in any given hour, plus a list of related news articles and blog posts that
support the rise and fall of the traffic surges. If any of them affects your business, you'll see it first here and will be able to react faster.
Click on any of the keywords to learn more, including the hourly volume of searches, whether popularity is going up or down and (in
some cases) where, geographically, the majority of the searches are coming from.
You can also put in your own keywords to see where your topic of choice stands over a selected period of time. We used the phrase
"email marketing" over the past 30 days and saw that search interest surged weekly on Wednesdays and had severe dips on Saturdays and Sundays. Or, go back as
far as May 15, 2007, to compare results over a longer time period.
9. Data Visualization Tool
Woopra
Need an alternative to Google Analytics, especially for bloggers? This desktop real-time analytics package (runs on Windows, MacOS and
Linux) could be it, and it's gratis (in beta at time of writing). It's so comprehensive, we can't list everything in a single review for fear of leaving out something
important.
Here's a quick rundown: an easy-to-use interface; live visitor tracking, analytics and notifications; one-click access to all the Web
sites/blogs you manage, visitor and member tagging, deep searching of statistics; developer tools to customize your Woopra application and plenty of support via FAQs,
user forums and tech support.
During beta, use is restricted to 10,000 pageviews a day, more than manageable for many of the Internet Marketing consultants who
read this.
Attention Bloggers and Twitterers: You can link to the contents of this newsletter here and know it will live there permanently.

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