Today is Cyber Monday, the biggest online shopping day of the year.  This is the day where online retailers slash prices in order to start the holiday shopping season off with a bang. According to Shop.org and Forrester Research, online retailers are optimistic about Cyber Monday. By The Numbers It is estimated that 84% of major online retailers will offer some kind of promotion for cyber monday.  You will also see the majority of deals on particular items (42.9%), for specific days (32.9%), along with free shipping on all purchases (15.7%).  Almost 69 million workers will be shopping at the...

SEMPO Releases Second Annual In-House Salary Survey Results Avinash Kaushik: Social Media Analytics: Twitter: Quantitative & Qualitative Metrics MakeUseOf: 5 Sites To Find Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale Listings Online Marketing Blog: All New Google.com RedesignSEOmoz: Google Link: Command – Busting The Myth Official Google Blog: Easy Holiday Shopping With Google Product Search SEOmoz: Illustrating The Long Tail Chris Pirillo: Black Friday and Cyber Monday Software CouponsReadWriteWeb: LinkedIn Finally Opens Platform: The Good & Bad News SEO Book: Google Adds Breadcrumbs...

The foundation of social media involves the interaction, engagement, and discussion with people using user-generated video, audio, and text through blogs, wikis, social content sharing sites, and video hosting sites. With that being said I ask…Is it possible to outsource your social media strategy? I always found it was a good debate to understand how social media companies are able to manage a clients entire social media campaign. How is this possible when the entire point of social media is to communicate with people with similar interests on a personal level? MarketingSherpa’s 2009...

Forums can be a great way to communicate with industry experts, gather feedback, position yourself as an industry leader and drive relevant traffic to your site.  The first step to marketing via forums is to find the right forums, where people are discussing your industry.  Using forum search engines like BoardTracker, BoardReader or BigBoards can help you find relevant forums quickly.  However it is important to focus on forums that are actively being participated in and are not filled with spam.  A post of reference is if the forum has over 1,000 registered members and 5,000-15,000 posts,...

Search Engine Land:  21 Link Builders Share Advanced Link Building Queries Hubspot: Twitter’s New Retweet Feature Makes Quality, Unique Content Even More Important for MarketersMashable: STUDY: Most Fortune 100 Companies Don’t Get Twitter Matt Cutts: State of the Index, November 2009 SEOmoz: Whiteboard Friday – Link Growth Partners WebProNews: Google Finally Shows Off Chrome OSSEO Roundtable: Page Load Time & Speed Will Likely Be a Ranking Factor in Google Google Analytics Blog: An Integration with FeedburnerEcommerce Partners: Gearing Up For Christmas 2009 SEOmoz:...

As most people know, you can’t just pick up the phone and talk to a Google representative…unless you want to spend money in Google Adwords.  So here is a comprehensive list of request and contact forms for various Google products. Website Request FormsWebpage Removal Request Tool: This tool is used if you would like Google to remove a page, image, or information from their index. Report Paid Links:  Google has stated multiple times that sites that pay for inbound links to increase search position will be penalized.  If you feel that a site is purchasing links, you can report them...

Forrester estimates that online retail sales will reach $44.7 billion this holiday season.  That is a 8% increase year over year.  The contributing factor is the increase in buyers doing more of their shopping online, as well as retailers focusing a larger portion of their marketing dollars on internet sales.  Here are some important stats to take from their report.39% of consumers plan to wait and see if the product they want to buy will go on sale 24% of consumers plan on purchasing lower-cost alternatives to brand they normally purchase Retailers plan on keeping smaller inventories, increase...

Google: Free Wifi for the Holidays Outspoken Media: PubCon 2009 LiveBlogging and Speaking Schedule Search Engine Land: PubCon Vegas ‘09 Blog Coverage Search Engine Land: Day Two: PubCon Vegas 2009 Search Engine Land: Day Three: PubCon Vegas 2009 SEO Roundtable: PubCon 2009 Las Vegas ArchivesSEOmoz: Link Building Has Changed Search Engine Land: 11 Effective, Efficient Ways To Use Limited Time To Build Links Outspoken Media: In-House SEO WebProNews: Google Annouces Details of New Product Listing AdsiCrossing: New UK-based Keyword Research Tool for the World’s Second Largest...

Virgin American flights starting November 10th, 2009 will be be giving away complimentary in-fight wifi from 47 participating airports across the country.  The promotion is Google’s way of giving back during the Christmas season.  The free wifi service will go until January , 15th 2010.  Now travelers may not be as frustrated during long delays and cancellations over the hectic holiday season.  Any passengers who are within reach of wifi access will be able to enjoy free high speed internet. Google will also be holding a charity event that will allow people to give donations via Google...

Google has just launched Google Dashboard, a centralized place to view all of your Google accounts in a clean interface.  Have the ability to see all of your Google Accounts including Alerts, Blogger, Calendar, Contacts, Docs, Friend Connect, Gmail, Google Sync, iGoogle, Orkut, Picasa, Google Profile, Reader, Google Talk, Tasks, Voice, Web History, YouTube and the list goes on. There are a number of other Google products that are not yet available in the dashboard.  Those include Google Analytics, Google Checkout, Google Adsense, Google Adwords, Feedburner, Google Base, Google Sites, Know, Local...