Did you miss me?  It’s been a few weeks since I’ve posted a Links of the Week…  I’ve been busy.  Honestly I’m finding it harder and harder to identify unique and outstanding mind stimulating reading material.  Maybe that’s because I’ve been reading so much especially over the last ten months?  Maybe it’s because I’m not reading as much?  Or maybe it’s because I’m being pickier about what is worth sharing with you guys?

If you haven’t heard about Nick DeNardis new site, EDU Checkup, then you should definitely stop by and subscribe.  Nick is giving away five minute site audits of Higher Education websites.  Even if it’s not your site being audited the videos are totally worthwhile for the technical knowledge.  Learn what to do, not do and how to do it.  This kind of hands on visual evaluation is so valuable.  Can you say a usability test from a technical perspective. Hum… Makes me wonder if I could do the same from an SEO perspective?  Ah who am I kidding, I don’t have time for that.

• Australian research shows email still dominates - Email newsletters look like a pretty good option for reaching Australians (at least the over 16 population). As well as general usage, 36% of people had subscribed to a newsletter in the last month.  Hey I know there is at least ONE Australian reader out there, yeah I’m talking to you Danielle Warby.
• 14 free tools that reveal why people abandon your website - Here’s a big problem with web design: If you want to make your website better, you need to understand why most of your visitors are leaving!
• Study finds 18 to 34-year-olds more influenced by email and direct mail than marketing messages via social networks - Is email marketing better than marketing through social networks? Yes, according to a new study from ExactTarget and Ball State University’s Center for Media Design.
• Google Sitelinks Research, Examples, Theories and Best Practices - Google Sitelinks is an automated program that displays between three and eight indented links for the top ranking website shown for particular search query. This blog post is dedicated to my research of the Google Sitelinks program and will include a number of examples, theories and best practices.
• Become a Spammer: Learn Better E-mail Marketing Habits - When I say ‘become a spammer’ I mean it in the FBI/Mulder profiling way, not the Buy-lots-of-servers-and-send-out-millions-of-messages-an-hour way. You can become a far better e-mail marketer if you study really crappy e-mail marketing.
• Radiohead’s Numbers Are in, and Yes, the Experiment Worked - Essentially, Radiohead has shown that - in some cases, at least - it’s possible to completely cut out the middleman (read: the record label) and still have a very successful record. Furthermore, they’ve proven that alternative business models are possible, and that fans aren’t all mindless zombies who are only looking to get as much as they can for as little money as possible.
• 4Q Survey Helps Answer Why Visitors Come - The 4Q Survey is designed to help you better understand “Why” people are coming to your site. A nice little writeup with practical applications to College websites.
• Lessons Learned Before It’s Too Late - Great advice and key points to take into consideration looking at recruitment efforts going forward in this slow economy.

Video of the Week

Thanks to Matt Herzberger for the suggestion.  Here comes the Obama vs McCain Dance Off.