So let’s take a look.

1. The Great Keynote Meltdown of 2009 – This post was nominated as a most influential post in 2009 by a higher ed community and was linked to from many influential bloggers around the web and a controversial mention in the Chronicle of Higher Ed.  Since I write on this blog I’ll toss my two cents out and say that the Chronicle and reader comments really came out in that article as clueless.    Anyway great article by Michael Fienen and an experience that anyone who attended will not soon forget.
2. Web Development Tools. What’s in your web toolbelt? – Nick DeNardis’ post from way back in January continues to be a page people visit daily and a staple of advice for anyone who is serious about Web Development.
3. Is Your University Using Twitter to Its Fullest Potential? – Another early in the year post where Rachel Reuben helps individuals get a grasp on how to leverage Twitter.  If you are still struggling with this, you might want to check out this post.
4. Summary of the new 2009 E-expectations summary for higher education – This Noel-Levitz research report provided lots of insight into student recruitment, but as with any report it never hurts to have an expert go through it and break down what all the material means.  We have Rachel to help our reads with that.
5. Understanding On-Page SEO for a Higher Education Website – In preparation for presenting on SEO, I wrote this post in a string of posts about SEO.  This one really took off although it is important to mention its Off-Page SEO companion as just as important.
6. sex…Sex…SEX! Now I Have Your Attention. – This provocatively titled book review post by Karlyn Morissette has gotten quite a few visitors searching for sex multiple times.  Hopefully the content provided them the value that they were looking for!?  Anyone looking for information about Neuro Marketing should check out this post.
7. Feeling Naked: A Tale of the Disappearing Facebook Fan Page – Rachel tells us a horror story of what happened to her school’s presence on the juggernaut known as Facebook.  Although it didn’t make the list, the follow-up post is also worth mentioning in this thread, Protecting your College’s Intellectual Property on Facebook.  This follow-up post was actually a guest post by Mike Petroff.
8. Social Networking Research: 99% of 18-24 Year Olds are on Social Networks – I remember writing this post as a reaction to some research I discovered on another site.  It was actually one of the easiest and quickest posts I have ever written so it’s kind of surprising to me to see the long term value in it.   This just goes to show that timely and relevant information is important to your audience.
9. Café New Paltz – 5 days in – Of the many posts written by Rachel about Café New Paltz this was the most viewed.  If you are thinking about setting up or creating a social network for your recruitment efforts you should definitely take a look at all of these posts.
10. Easy ROI on Facebook Ads – I’m a big believer that PPC (Pay Per Click) and online ads are a VERY untapped marketing channel for Higher Ed in general.  Facebook Ads are one of the cheapest and can easily target your specific audiences with visual ads.  Karlyn tells us exactly how to measure the return on investment from these ads.

Bonus: Older Posts People Still Care About

Not surprisingly, we have some older posts that have stood the test of time and that fit right in with these other posts.  These posts show the true power of SEO and creating remarkable content.

1. The Use of Social Media in Higher Education for Marketing and Communications – Rachel Reuben’s guest post from the summer of 2008 launched a true social media guru.  It also was the most viewed post in 2009 even though it’s 18 months old.
2. Google Analytics Filters: Helping you Better Segment, Clean, and Understand your Data – This is another 2008 post that was actually the second most viewed post in 2009.  Like Rachel’s post, it could be said that this post launched me as an authority on Google Analytics, something that I’ve made numerous presentations on, including an upcoming webinar in February.
3. What is the Best Multi-Client Instant Messenger Software? – I named Digsby my winner back then, and I still use it today so this one still holds up.  Of course Mac or Linux individuals will still have to look for something else.
4. Tracking Flash with Google Analytics and Example – Nick DeNardis’ very first post on this blog continues to help individuals get everything they can out of Google Analytics around tracking flash.

Hopefully everyone is looking forward to a BIG 2010 and a whole new decade!  We always have big plans, so stay tuned for our annual recap if you are interested in where this blog has come and where it is going.

Photo Credit: Sculpted Mirrors by Cold Press Publishing

Related posts:

1. The Top 10 Posts of 2008
2. Recapping 2009 and What to Expect from .eduGuru in 2010
3. Recapping 2008 and the 2009 Game Plan

1. Pattern Tap
   This is a personal favorite of mine.  It’s less good for whole layouts, but great for looking at collections of designs for particular site elements.  It’s also not higher ed specific, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a ton of stuff we could draw in to our own sites.  Users can also generate their own collections and share them as well.
   

   Pattern Tap

2. eduStyle
   Easily a top hit for everyone in higher education, and well deserving of a spot in a good designer’s toolbelt.  A great place to find out what designs are really catching people’s eyes, and which ones are dropping the ball (happy to see our site is running +13/-3 currently).  Also, keep your eyes open for the results of the 2nd annual eduStyle awards, being announced at eduWeb in a couple months.  Voting for the People’s Choice award starts the first of May.  Follow @edustyle for announcements.
   

   eduStyle.net

3. EDU Snippets
   Our own Nick DeNardis is behind this little monster.  In the vein of PatternTap, it focuses on elements of higher ed websites, and like eduStyle, allows rating of those elements and how successful you think they are from a design and usability stand point.  Sign up to get a daily feature, and stay tuned as he roles out additional features in the future to make it a more robust tool.  Worth keeping your eye on.
   

   EDU Snippets

4. CSSRemix
   CSSRemix features a simple, straightforward site gallery full of dynamic and modern layouts and designs.
   

   CSSRemix

5. CSS Import
   Much like CSSRemix, CSS Import is basically just a gallery of web sites with nice templates.
   

   CSS Import

6. Design Meltdown
   Taking a page from the Pattern Tap book (or maybe vice versa), they focus on galleries of elements.  More robust than Pattern Tap, they are also a little more cumbersome to use.  Plenty of great samples though.  They’re also on Twitter, @designmeltdown.
   

   Design Meltdown

7. Smashing Magazine
   This German blog is a fantastic resource for articles on everything from templates, to design, typography, and beyond.  Even though it’s a little different from the sites listed above, the quality of the information they provide makes them really stand out as a must read resource.  Follow them on Twitter at @smashingmag, and keep an eye out for their upcoming book.
   

   Smashing Magazine

There you have it, a quick hit list of seven places to dig in to the next time you need a little extra brain juice (sweet, delicious brain juice). I want to thank everyone who made suggestions and contributed to the discussion, you’re all great and helped make this post possible. There were also some neat suggestions which I didn’t mention that weren’t directly web related, like ffffound.com, butdoesitfloat.com, and the book Presentation Zen for creative presentations.  Be sure to share any resources you find helpful below in the comments too, in case I didn’t mention your favorite.

photo credit: lilit

Related posts:

1. eBook Review: The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher-Ed Homepage Design
2. Content is More Important than Design
3. Talkback: Successful Higher Ed Branding for the Web

1. How to use StumbleUpon for Higher Education marketing – With over a thousand more pageviews than number two this is by far the most popular post on the site in the past year.  It also probably helped that this one experienced the most success on StumbleUpon which accounted for most all those pageviews.  What’s funny is my exponential knowledge of StumbleUpon since writing and the fact I’m writing methodolgy for HubSpot about StumbleUpon and expanding upon this… go figure.
2. The Test Results after Comparing 11 Free Web Analytic Services – This post definitely took some of the most research and digging into to produce.  It also was the spring board that began my well documented obsession with all things Google Analytics.
3. Google Analytics 101: Some Basic Setup Tips – During a couple of day training in Google Analytics at ROI Revolution this was the first true introdution post to Google Analytics for many people.
4. First Thoughts on Google Chrome:  It’s Not What You Think – Technical guru Michael Fienen introduced us all to Chrome in this post that here we are four months after it was published and it remains an excellent introduction to Chrome from a technical standpoint.
5. The Presidential Election Race using Web 2.0 – yeah I know this post has nothing to do with Higher Education, but looking way back to January 30^th man we have come a long way in electing Barack Obama president.  Looking way back at some of the numbers it’s quite obvious that Social Media easily picked this one correctly months ahead of time.  This election also really brought Social Media into it’s own as a very powerful brand building and campaign tool.
6. The Use of Social Media in Higher Education for Marketing and Communications – I like to simply refer to this post as the “Reuben Awaking.” This was, now .eduGuru, Rachel Reuben’s blogging introduction to the world and still a wonderful compilation of research.
7. Comparing the Obama and McCain Emails – Email Guru extraordinaire Karlyn Morissette gave us a timeless peak into the email campaigns of the two candidates.  Also getting this special look really helped us see what worked and what didn’t.
8. Google Analytics Filters: Helping you Better Segment, Clean, and Understand your Data – Google Analytics is quite a mess without applying filters.  This post was definitely the favorite destination after presentations I gave on the subject of web analytics over the second half of the year.
9. How to Monitor your Online Identity – This post still hold relevant today nine months after being written.  Well worth a first or second read.  Are you monitoring your online identity?
10. The Right Way to Setup a WordPress blog and Why: Part 1 – One of my first posts slid in at number 10.  This was the first in a two part series, but looking back man oh man have I learned so much since then.  Part 2.

There are so many excellent posts over the last year… we almost hit 200 in our first year as this is post number 201.   Here are a few other top posts worth a second look, but that didn’t make the top 10 list.

• Four Reasons Why to Optimize Web Graphics and How to be Environmentally Friendly
• Tracking Outgoing Clicks with Google Analytics
• Creating an Exclusive Online Community for Fall 2009 Accepted Students
• Using Delicious for Higher Education Purposes
• Change Is Not an Administrative Policy.  It’s a Social Movement
• Twitter as a Marketing Tool

Thanks for such a wonderful 2008 and we hope to continue to prove awesome content in 2009!  Keep reading Guru’s and we’ll keep posting.

Related posts:

1. Top 10 .eduGuru Posts of 2009
2. Recapping 2008 and the 2009 Game Plan
3. Links of the Week September 5th, 2008

1. Barack Obama’s Ultimate Guide to Marketing: How he Used Internet and Social Media to Become President-Elect – Barack Obama ’s election was historic not just politically – his use of the the Internet to promote awareness and create a loyal following will be the template which all future presidential campaigns will draw inspiration from.
2. Google’s SEO Starter Guide – Google finally issues an official SEO guide. Nothing you wouldn’t expect to see in this thing, but it is coming from THE official source so it is nice to have an actual confirmation that this is the right way to do it.
3. Google adds ‘on demand’ indexing to Site Search – New feature gives control to Web publishers over the frequency with which Google refreshes its index of Site Search’s content.
4. Google Analytics for SEO programs – Actual examples of the new Google Analytics features in use. Specific examples showing how to use it for SEO research.
5. Flip Camcorder Goes High-Def - Over the past couple of years, Pure Digital Technologies has changed the way people think about video cameras by turning these heavy, expensive, intimidating devices into affordable, user-friendly gadgets that fit into a shirt pocket.
6. Sizing Up the Long Tail of Search – There’s so much traffic in the tail it is hard to even comprehend. To illustrate, if search were represented by a tiny lizard with a one-inch head, the tail of that lizard would stretch for 221 miles.
7. Customer Service and Reputation Management the Twitter Way: A Case Study – A case study of a company that “gets it” and using Twitter to satisfy a client where other channels failed.
8. The 22 Step Social Media Marketing Plan – A plan based on what others are doing. Great insight.
9. Facebook Ad Rates Fall: When 32% Growth Is Not Enough – AllFacebook reports that both the CPM and the minimum spend for some Facebook have dropped 50% since October of last year:
10. How to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn – LinkedIn has a lot to offer regardless of where you are in your career, especially with the economy the way it is.
11. 50+ Must Read Web Design for ROI, Usability and SEO Articles – This collection of 50 must read web design for ROI, usability and SEO articles also embraces the philosophy behind designing websites for the ROI of it not the looks.
12. 25 Web Form Optimization Tips – With web forms playing such an important role in the completing goals, it goes without saying that we should optimize the heck out of them. Below are 25 tips for doing just that.
13. Underline Links, People – A quick reminder to make sure your links on your website are still underlined.
14. The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media – You may have heard of social media. There ’s been a bit of news about it recently. However, a lot of people making that news have created expectations and beliefs about social media that aren’t true.  Also there is a nice continuation of this post here, Social Media Myths and Reality.
15. Study: Influencers are Alive and Well on Social Media Sites – Online reviews drive far more purchase decisions than newspaper articles, reviews by website editors, or advice from store employees.

So how is that?  I cut three weeks worth of awesome bookmarks down to fifteen links?

Funny Video of the Week

Mark Wahlberg talking to animals.  Ok not really… but sort of.  I’m out, say hello to your mother for me!

Don’t forget to watch the followup to this video.

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week March 14th, 2008
2. Links of the Week March 7th, 2008
3. Links of the Week August 22th, 2008

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.

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week March 7th, 2008
2. Links of the Week May 30th, 2008
3. Links of the Week August 22th, 2008

So we had two different list come out this week giving us the Who’s Who of big shots on the web. PC World gave us the The 50 Most Important People on the Web and BusinessWeek The 25 Most Influential People on the Web.  Sadly I nor anyone else in the Higher Education Web community or anyone who would spend the time of day reading this blog made the list.  Oh well there is always next year.

• Can You Still Afford to Ignore Blogs and Social Media? -What does all this mean to your business? If your customers are online, especially if they are in the 13-41 age group, they are going to be increasingly using social media tools in the future.
• Google Analytics Filters – A directory of Google Analytics Filters. Very nice handy site.
• MySpace Maintains Over 65% Market Share – MySpace.com received 67.54 percent of the market share of U.S. visits in August 2008 among a custom category of 56 of the leading social networking websites according to Hitwise.
• The Future of Widgets on Facebook: Dead -The new Facebook design is killing applications/widgets.
• For Microsoft shops, Silverlight 2.0 trumps Flash – Silverlight 2.0, which is due in the next few weeks, fixes the flaws of the initial release and gives developers a viable alternative to Flash
• Tiny Notes Net Big Gains: The Netbook Revolution – You may not know it yet, but the next computer you buy is going to be a netbook. The numbers say so.
• Smushit.com – optimizing images has just become really easy – Smushit.com allows you to upload some files or give it URL. The tool then takes the images, optimizes them and tells you how many bytes you can save. You then get a zip of all the images for download and can replace them on your site.
• Cone Finds That Americans Expect Companies to Have a Presence in Social Media -According to the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, 93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites and 85 percent believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers.
• Reading Blogs at Work: Why You Should Do It & How You Can Make it Worthwhile -It’s really a shame that more people aren’t reading blogs at work, and we don’t just say that because we’d like the increased readership. If you’re not reading blogs at work, you may not be doing your job as well as you could be.

Now that I’m in full school, work, freelancing, and presenting mode my time surfing YouTube for funny videos is really suffering.  Here’s a classic to pull out the bag though.  Enjoy Gabe & Max’s Internet Thing!

See you crazy HighEdWeb people tomorrow…  or Sunday if you don’t arrive until then!

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week September 12th, 2008
2. Links of the Week September 26th, 2008
3. Links of the Week Jan 18th, 2008

Update: The full report has been released over multiple pages.  I went ahead and combined them all to one Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008 (pdf).  This thing is 49 pages so be warned.

Also if you haven’t heard, I’m excited to announce that I have gone TROPICAL!  For those of you that have seen Semi-Pro maybe that makes sense?  Anyway I wrote a little post over on my personal blog about Kyle… the Tropical Storm me so head over there if you’re bored.

• Let me tell you about Unigo.com – Sam Jackson introduction to Unigo.com a new site that he has some hands on experience with.  I’ve talked with Sam about this interested new site and hopefully we will have a guest post on this blog soon with some additional information about Unigo!
• How to Optimize Your Landing Page – Some great tips and advice about landing pages.
• College Search 101 – Mike at HighEdWebTech just launched a new video series that contain tips and tricks to remember during the college search process. Interesting idea and a cool share.
• Free and Low Cost Tools to Get the Job Done – Nice list of free tools to assist webmasters and web markets to just get the job done.
• Building Search Engine Friendly Sites: Common Questions – A list of basic questions and answers to keep in mind when trying to optimize a website.
• Web 2.0 Expo: The Future of Browsers and the State of AJAX – The big takeaway is that Javascript skills are about to become incredibly relevant to every software development effort out there.
• Cloud computing leaving relational databases behind – One thing you won’t find underlying a cloud computing initiative is a relational database. And this is no accident: Relational databases are ill-suited for use within cloud computing environments.
• The Viral Marketing Glossary – A Viral Marketing Glossary that gives actual definitions of the “buzzwords” that get thrown around a lot when talking about viral marketing.
• Squeezing social media-driven news into a college campus – Andy DeSota talks about some of his challenges and solutions for establishing a social media alternative on a college campus that competes and even challenges the other traditional campus media.

Funny Video of the week honors goes to the I-Rack.  This video still cracks me up when I watch.

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week June 26th, 2008
2. Links of the Week September 12th, 2008
3. Links of the Week September 5th, 2008

Well enough of my ramblings, onto what you really care about this post for.

• To NoFollow or To NoIndex That is the Question – A detailed post going into the differences between NoFollow and NoIndex when to use each and other juicy information on the subject.
• Browser battle: Firefox 3.1 vs. Chrome vs. IE 8 – Mozilla’s second alpha release of Firefox 3.1 ups the ante in its browser battles with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Google’s Chrome
• Eight Rules for Choosing Web Analytics Key Performance Indicators – The Eight Avinash Rules for Entering KPI Heaven. Is there really any need to explain it any farther?
• Demystifying the “duplicate content penalty” – From the Google Webmaster Central Blog: Let’s put this to bed once and for all, folks: There’s no such thing as a “duplicate content penalty.” At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that.
• As Twitter Regains Footing, Competitors’ Growth Stalls – Over the last few months, Twitter’s challenges have been well documented, here and elsewhere. Between issues with uptime, occasional data loss, a reduced feature set, and a difficult relationship with its developer community …
• AOL’s Luddites Love Their E-Mail More than Google’s Geeks – Thanks to Ron Bronson for sharing this one.  I really like the data that they share about which email clients users use and time spent on each.  What it shows is that although many of us adore GMail there are still a lot of diehard AOL and YahooMail users out there.  I guess I can’t say two much because I still have two Yahoo addresses that I check regularly.  Also just to share a little extra this nice little graphic is wofford’s email breakdown that I pulled from our email marketing account.  Bronoto issued some new upgrades this week and I’m loving the new dashboards with lots of reporting goodness.
• ChaCha.com and the New Age of Digital Cheating in the Classroom – Over on the Student Affairs Blog an interesting discussion about ChaCha being uses for cheating in class.
• Could There Be More To Google, Android, Chrome, and Gears Than Meets The Eye? – Gears, Android, and Chrome oh might. Hum… is Google producing a perfect storm here? Interesting case presented.

Video of the Week

The SNL version of Tina Fey as Sara Palin was the easy pick, but to me this Michael Phelps skit was just funnier despite it being a little unpolished.  Give the guy a break though he’s the best swimmer in the world not an actor.  So how about for breakfast tomorrow morning you just eat an “actual pig in a blanket”.

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week September 5th, 2008
2. Links of the Week July 19th, 2008
3. Links of the Week September 12th, 2008

• Mapping Memory: Web Designer as Information Cartographer – This is an interesting read by Aaron Rester from the other week on the A List Apart site.  Approaching web design from more of a cartographer instead of a architect is something I haven’t really thought about before.
• Add Compression to Your Web Server – Your web server should be compressing your files before serving them to your users. Why? There is no reason not to, 99% of browsers know how to decompress them and if you’re serious about hosting a professional web site, you should know every second it takes to get your content from your web server to your user counts.
• Five Ways to User Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media – Wow if there was a must read of the week. This is it. At least for me. So go learn how to convince people that EVERYONE needs to be reading .eduGuru!
• How Search Engines May Use Images to Rank Web Pages – It has been a fairly common belief that a search engine will look at text associated with web pages when ranking those pages, but information from the search engines about how they might actually use text related to images has been somewhat scarce.
• 5 unusal ways to market your product to college students – A quite interesting list of product ideas that could appeal to college students… hmm
• The revised Commandments of Email Marketing – Karlyn giving us the updated and revised 5 commandments of email marketing. How not just for admission folks.
• Power Headlines To Increase Conversion – Certain power words and phrases consistently outshine other words, and you can tailor these to the needs of your target audience — and have them scrambling to find out more!
• Measuring SEO: why rankings are worthless – Go beyond rankings and measure basic metrics like the growth of traffic generated from the organic search listings. Segment that traffic per keyword and go measure the conversions, preferrable per keyword. And get even a greater insight about the quality of this search engine traffic with metrics like bounce rate, time on site and returning visitors. But interpretate those metrics with care and take in account much more information besides the metrics.
• The future of search – I am a search addict. I ’m naturally inquisitive – I’ve always liked finding things out. Plus, I’ve worked at Google on search for the past 9 years and 3 months. Of course I search – a lot. Yet I would guess that on any given day, I only do about 20% of the searches that I could.

And now for the Funny Video of the Week.  Well this week I’m going to help some of my boys do a little promotional effort.  In case you haven’t seen the Who Stole Butler’s Mascot video here’s your chance.

Many came to help and we even saw a local rival mascot do his best to assist in the search.

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week September 26th, 2008
2. Links of the Week September 5th, 2008
3. Links of the Week September 19th, 2008

So once again Google seems to have dominated tech news this week with the launch of Google Chrome.  This browser which has been dangled in front of us for years was introduced in a comic strip and a day later released to the public.  Pretty quick turnover.  There is an absolute TON of content already discussing this browser, but I’ll try and keep it short.  I would definitely read Michael Fienen’s post he wrote on this blog earlier in the week if you haven’t already.  He nailed it especially with this assessment:

Here’s the bottom line: I don’t plan on looking at Chrome as a web browser.  It is, but it isn’t.  The way it has been developed, the purpose, target, and reason for its being is to serve as an interface portal for increasingly complex and robust web applications.

For most web professionals we have come to depend on our Firefox extensions, but for a normal user who uses IE then changing isn’t a big deal and probably a good move.

• 10 Key Features That Differentiate Google’s Chrome from Firefox & IE
• Google Chrome Browser: What You Need To Know
  

Now to the rest of the links:

• Wayne State Commercials – If photos say a thousand words then videos must be encyclopedias. We recently took on the task of visualizing the university in five 30 second TV commercials and one complied anthem video. The result was not only visually appealing but also spoke to who we are as a university.
• CNN Heavily Promoting Twitter On Air, Making Big Moves in Social Media – Out of the hundreds of articles and posts out there on how companies should utilize social media and Web 2.0, CNN seems to be one of the few major corporations out there that have paid attention.
• SEO and Web Accessibility Come Hand in Hand – While we (surprisingly) seldom see accessibility issues discussed in SEO community, search engine optimizers should definitely both explore and implement accessibility standards:
• Samsung: “Blu-ray has 5 years left” – Samsung has said that it sees the Blu-ray format only lasting a further 5 years before it is replaced by another format or technology. Read about the new OLED technology of the future.
• Keep Streaming Videos, the Tubes Are Fine: Report Finds – Pay no attention to rumors that the internet is getting full: the internet can eat 50 eggs.
• Meet the Parents: Get an exclusive look at Noel-Levitz’s survey results about Parents’ E-expectations – An interesting study about parents online expecations. Reports, data, and knowledge are good!
• Six Degrees of Separation Is Now Three – Is it time to revise the old saw that everyone in the world is connected by just six degrees of separation? A study from French mobile carrier O2 has found that strangers are more connected to each other than they ever have been.
• Five ways to repeat yourself effectively – We’ve all had emails that worked particularly well, drawing an unusually high response. Pity, then, we can’t use that same email again and again. Except we can…sort of. Here five ideas: let me know what you think.
• 58% of people don’t know what social networking is – According to a survey made by market intelligence firm Synovate, well over half the population (58%) across 17 markets of the world does not know what social networking is.
• Video in Email: Framing the Subject – I think what is most interesting about this post is the fact that they propose video being a very high engagement level in email and a great call to action (potentially the highest return). Isn’t really that hard to test and definitely worth the time.

I’ve been so busy and haven’t really seen any incredible unique videos lately so it’s time to dig up the old stables.  If you haven’t heard about the Leprican in Mobile, Alabama then you are definitely in for a treat!

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week September 19th, 2008
2. Links of the Week September 12th, 2008
3. Links of the Week September 26th, 2008

One of the biggest pieces of news for someone who’s serious about Search Marketing has to be the release of Google Suggest.  There has already been a lot of experts who have given their opinion on the subject so do yourself a favor and make sure that you understand how this can effect your traffic.  For Wofford we get +/- 50,000 visits a month from search traffic so this does potential impacts and understanding it is quite important.

Just so I’m on the record for saying it before you read all this thinking Google Suggest is going to revolutionize your keyword research.  Yahoo has had a Search Assist function that basically does the same thing forever now.  Most people don’t know about it because you have to click on the down arrow below the search box, but it’s right there.

Everything you need to know about Google Suggest

• Official Google Blog: At a loss for words? – from the camel’s mouth
• 9 Ideas How Google Suggest Could Change Search Marketing
• Google Suggest Will Greatly Change Keyword Referrers
• How Google Suggest Changes SEO
• Free SEO Tips for Google Search Suggest
• Google Suggest(s) a New Reputation Management Nightmare

Now the Links that you brought back

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week Feb 29th, 2008
2. Links of the Week August 22th, 2008
3. Links of the Week September 12th, 2008

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It’s that simple.  Tell me what you think.  I’m closing this poll next Thursday night and if you want linkage I’ll try and keep up the weekly links or focus more on original content.

So I have a whole mess of links accumulated over the last month, but I’m still going to keep this very focused and the best of the best here.  Enjoy.

• Why Recipients Call Your Mail Spam – Respecting subscriber permission is still the most important thing you can to do prevent spam complaints. But, it also means that permission alone isn’t enough insurance against spam complaints.
• The Internets isn’t just something the kids use…you can raise big bucks on it too! -The Chronicle of Philanthropy released its annual online fundraising statistics this week and I’m sure many old-school fundraisers (who think the Internets is just something the kids use) were surprised at the results.
• Sex, Drugs and Software Lead Spam Purchase Growth – 29% of Internet Users have Purchased from Spam, According to New Research from Marshal
• On Domain Names, Size and Quality DOES Matter! – The conclusion: all other things being equal (e.g., marketing budget, content quality, design, affiliation with larger websites and so on), a website with a good domain name will always outperform a competitor with a bad or average domain name.
• Study: Fastest Growing US Companies Rapidly Adopting Social Media – A one year follow up on a study of social media adoption at 500 of the fastest growing companies in the US has found that familiarity with and use of blogs, podcasting, wikis, online video and social networking has skyrocketed in 2008 to nearly double what it was in 2007. 77% of respondents now report at least some use of a social media tool
• Chicago Tribune’s Social Media Evolution – Last March, the Chicago Tribune assembled a four-person social media task force to help modernize the stodgy media giant by integrating the bright and shiny social media world of Facebook, Digg, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.
• Top 14 power words for email, advertising and communications – Your emails or advertising is missing to get answered ? Sales letters not selling ? Ads not getting clicked on ? You want to catch attention ? Use these power words:
• Facebook Is Not Only The World’s Largest Social Network, It Is Also The Fastest Growing – Even though Facebook is now the largest social network in the world, —with 132 million unique visitors in June—it is also still the fastest growing. (At least among the major social networks). According to figures compiled by comScore, Facebook’s visitor growth is up 153 percent on an annual basis.
• Is Facebook the Most Popular Social Bookmarking Service on the Web? – How do website readers prefer to share stories they find with friends? According to the company behind the widely used sharing widget ShareThis, after emailing a link, the most popular method of sharing is now Facebook.
• Top 10 Tech-Savvy College Towns – From innovative courses to citywide wifi, some college towns know how to bring out your inner geek. Computer science majors and casual Web junkies alike appreciate the high-tech offerings in these college towns.
• 82% Of Phone Users Don’t Send Text Messages At All – Looks like it is time to roll out the conflicting studies. Last week, we saw that three-quarters of phone shoppers list SMS capabilities as the number one must-have feature. This week, however, we learn that fully 82% of U.S. mobile phone users don’t send text messages at all!!! Is just 18% of the population really accounting for all those billions and billions of messages each month?
• The Ultimate Guide To SERP Click Through Rates – The ultimate guide to where people click. This data is the result of 36,389,567 searches and 19,434,540 clicks. The results make for interesting reading…
• How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business – Social media measurement is one of those topics about which everyone has an opinion, but nobody agrees on the solution. Here are a few pointers.
• Can New Media Be Taught in Schools? – Old media is slower, less compelling and more expensive than many emerging media online. It’s also more professional, often of higher quality and generally easier to monetize.
• You Should Probably Read This. – An extensive report about how to “Recruiting Millennials: How Official Admission Blogs Depict Colleges and Universities From a Public Relations Perspective”

And this week, it could be the final if you vote weekly links off the island, the funny video is one that either you will find hilarious or well… a complete waste of three minutes.  Hopefully it’s the first.

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week Feb 22th, 2008
2. Links of the Week August 29th, 2008
3. Links of the Week July 11th, 2008

Higher Education Blogs

1. Higher Ed Web Marketing – Paul Redfern has been blogging for a few months now and really hits it out of the park on some things that really get to all of us.  His variety of forward thinking and simply plain reality of what we deal with posts are great to find out what another is looking towards and dealing with on a regular basis.
2. Marketing, Communications and Technology – Eddie Merille has also been blogging regularly for a few months.  I’ve found his introduction to Issuu to be of specific value to Wofford along with his posts on social media and other subjects.  Eddie is a little bit of a iPhone junkie like a lot of the rest of you, but I’ll forgive him for that.  Heck maybe I’m the only one who doesn’t drool over the iPhone?
3. Big Glorious Mess – This new creation by David Baker has some well thought through posts.  David has already shared some valuable insight about how to look at situations and deal with this “big glorious mess” that is Higher Education Web.
4. Wayne State Web Communications Blog – I’m not sure if Nick DeNardis is the only blogger on this one, but he does a good job sharing lots of valuable links and posting some of the really cool web projects that they work on at Wayne State.
5. Trending Upwards – I actually just found this blog the other day, but Shelby Thayer is on a mission to provide quality content regularly on a subject that is of incredible interest to me, web analytics.  I’m so glad to see someone else in Higher Education really digging in and sharing knowledge about this incredibly important but often overlooked subject in Higher Education.
6. uTodd – I know that I only said five blogs, but Todd Sanders has to be one of the funniest guys out in the Higher Education Web arena.  Ok I’m probably biased because he joined the Trashball ranks and posted an absolutely hilarious video of The UWGB Trashball Championship Series.

If you’re a new blog drop a comment and I’ll be sure to check it out.

Finally since we’re already on Trashball and I just gave the link to Todd’s Trashball video here’s a video Brad @ SquarePeg put together challenging Wofford’s Mascot to a game.  I couldn’t get the Wofford Terrier to respond, but my dog Skip definitely responded.

Related posts:

1. Introducing Blog High Ed: Aggregating the Best of Higher Ed Blogs
2. Links of the Week May 16th, 2008
3. The Scoop about Blogs.Wofford.Edu and Alumni Bloggers

Guess I need to start packing for eduWEB2008 this coming week in Atlantic City.  Here’s some good links.

• The Power of FREE! – Some interest observations into the power of free in marketing.
• Why The Google Keyword Tool Is Useless For SEO, Even With Exact Numbers – For most people who aren’t hardcore keyword junkies this is probably over your head, but I think it’s valuable knowledge and I need to rethink some of my earlier statements based on it. More about this to come later.
• On Doing Things. – Drew starts a great discussion about getting through the web politics and actually getting to work. What’s your experience? Go leave a comment.
• Online SEO Tools – the Ultimate Collection – Title says it all…
• A look at Microformats for Higher Education – Jesse Rodgers shares his year in the making research of Microformats. A rather extensive report that compares ten college websites and applying what is learned to a mock-up of University of Waterloo home page.
• Video Optimization and Analytics: A closer look at YouTube Insight – This is the first real information I’ve seen about optimizing videos for the web and SEO. Really good next level of thinking type stuff.
• Web content categories for higher ed – Here’s a new blog for you. David Baker who is the Director of Web Communications at Oregon State just started up this puppy. This quality post breaks down higher education content into three easy to understand categories

Finally here is a video of Sports Mascot Bloopers.  See you in Atlantic City!

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week July 3rd, 2008
2. Links of the Week July 11th, 2008
3. Links of the Week September 19th, 2008

• How to Develop a Social Media Plan for Your Business in 5 Steps – Does your college have a social media plan? It should and here’s a great place to start.  Also check out my page of Social Marketing for Higher Education if you haven’t seen it already.
• Comments Comments Comments – Paul Redfern asks a question I’ve asked a few times myself. Why don’t College News Releases allow comments?
• Treat Me Mean, I Need The Reputation – Some great scenarios and advice about handling bad PR and an unhappy customer who’s ripping your company a new one online.
• Are all optimization processes the same? – A great post to really learn a bunch about fully optimizing graphics for the web. Thanks Derek, this is the post I’ve been waiting for.
• Three Sticky Ways to Hold Reader Attention – Your copy might focus on benefits instead of features, have the right balance of emotion to logic, and maybe you’ve even snagged the reader’s attention with an arresting headline. But after your reader clicks through, does your copy hold her interest?
• Writing Killer Headlines: Top 30 Viagra SPAM Email Subject Lines – Be warned it might be too much for some of you. Poor and spam industry lead the way so often… why not see if we can take some advice from these guys? I mean they do have it tougher than anyone else… it’s obvious spam, so how do you still get people to click through?  Check out the headlines for great ideas and also some fun laughs.
• College news sources should be using full RSS feeds – Andy’s at it again offering some great advice about College RSS feeds. Take a quick read then check your feeds.
• Reputation Management for New Media Survey – How ready are you? – A recent study reports 55% of Companies Not Prepared for Online Reputation Crisis. As I’ve written about monitoring a companies online identity before and easy ways to do this, this data only backups these needs.

I feel like this video needs a little explanation.  Todd Sanders shared this video over on his blog, Drop the F-bomb, win an Award.  Me being a huge SouthPark fan I naturally loved it.

Related posts:

1. Links of the Week April 11th, 2008
2. Links of the Week July 3rd, 2008
3. Links of the Week July 19th, 2008