As tears welled up in my eyes after watching Apple’s latest television commercial, I realized just how powerful advertising can be. Not only was its spot well filmed and paired with heart-warming music, it touched on a very current topic in society: Does cell phone use cause teens to become introverted and unattached from reality? Apple shows with this tear jerker that its products actually bring families closer together. 

It occurs to me that understanding how to add keywords to a webiste as part of your internet marketing strategy is similar to Christmas stockings. 

Christmas was a very important holiday in my house, and although I grew up in a low income family, my mom put a lot of thought and energy into making sure Christmas was special. Each of us kids hung up our stockings and on Christmas morning, our stockings were stuffed full. Stockings were a big deal and we could always unload them before mom and dad were up. Presents had to wait for the whole family so we would take our time going through our stockings until the whole family was awake.

I'm not sure who writes marketing content for JetBlue but I want to meet them! I am regularly impressed by their ability to be creative and weave in meaningful content while doing so.

Below is an email I got from them today built on "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and while I know many will rework this for their marketing, I think JetBlue has done it well. Note the links in this email that each highlight one of the benefits of traveling with JetBlue. It's a great example of what can be done. You can bet this took a bit more time than the average email, but it serves to delight and inform. You can't ask for more in marketing than that!

Without further ado, JetBlue's Christmas email:

You better watch out

You better not cry

You better not pout I’m telling you why

Google bots are crawling around

It’s making a list and checking it twice

Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice

Google bots are crawling around

It sees you when you’re blogging

It knows you want to rank

It knows if links are bad or good

So be good for goodness sake!

Happy Monday to everyone.  I wanted to pass along this blog from Search Engine Land that talks about all the changes in SEO especially around link building.  I want you to understand and be kept up to date with all the changes.  If you have been talking with me at all in the last 6 months you have probably heard me talk about link building and how it has changed.  Many of the people who come to us looking for help have heard or even invested a lot of time and money in link building strategies because they helped people rank better in Google.  

Recently I met with a client regarding a website redesign we are doing for them. We are working on trying to streamline their content, make it more user friendly in the navigation, and be more client focused than it has been to date. The client, who happens to be the CEO of the company in this case, agrees in concept with all of these ideas, but the implementation of that in a way that he likes is not so simple. He wants “warmer,” he wants people to feel “drawn in” and he took us to a site he really likes and feels does that. As it turns out, that site had the opposite effect on me!

Twelve days before Christmas, John, a small business owner in Chico, CA wrote a letter to Santa. Why? Because his children knew he was struggling and needed help, and they knew Santa would answer their father’s Christmas wish. At first John brushed it off, but after much urging his children had him convinced. John started crafting his letter to Santa. He wanted to be as clear as possible to ensure his wish would come true.   

If you have been so busy with the hustle and bustle of the season that you have missed the Christmas Spirit of WestJet, a Canadian based airline, then check out this YouTube video:

So what’s all the fuss about Instagram’s secret that they are supposedly unveiling to the world in New York on Thursday?

Well, with the word of the year being “selfie” Instagram is kind of a big deal. Didn’t you know? Not impressed yet? How about this—Instagram’s 130 million users share roughly 55 million photos each day. (Mashable) Also, it’s owned by Facebook.

Instagram is a more user oriented photo sharing social media site, but it's also becoming popular with businesses, especially clothing brands and companies that have a lot of visual products or services to offer.

Are you having issues bringing traffic to your blog posts? Well there is most likely a reason why no one is reading your blog. Here are five things you're probably not doing, and should be to help answer the question why blog, even when it isn’t getting the love and attention you are hoping for.