Bloggers Digest - 12/21/07

We’re moving into the most insane shopping weekend of the year, but that hasn’t stopped the Internet from pushing out great content. Here are a few of the gems from my feed reader this week. Hope you enjoy them and have a great weekend.

Holiday Marketing

• Online retailers are expected to offer last-minute Christmas shoppers free shipping and big discounts right up to the weekend. Via Salt Lake Tribune

• Emarketer reports that coupons are the most influential marketing medium for multichannel merchants, followed by newspaper flyers and word-of-mouth.
• Proof that people are crazy about their pets - many are throwing Christmas parties for their pooches and pussy-cats. If you’re a pet retailer and you missed this holiday opportunity, don’t worry there will be plenty of “Pupperware Parties” and “Bark-mitzvahs” all year long.

A couple weeks ago I saw this (sold out) platter on Drs Foster and Smith. Gaining 5 pounds over the holidays - not just for humans anymore.

Ecommerce Trends

• Facebook is rumored to be testing a payment system which could pave the way for more ecommerce functionality within Facebook. We’ll see.

• Fabulous article from USA Today about how “digital millennials” (teens and twenty-somethings) are embracing (and often prefer) mobile commerce - an exciting industry to watch.

Web Design

• If it can happen to Wal-Mart, it can happen to you. GrokDotCom reminds us why testing your site across different browsers is important, perhaps more than ever now with the growing popularity of Firefox.

Search Engine Marketing

• Adam Green contributed a summary of the recent changes to Google Analytics’ graphs and geo-targeting-Google-maps-mashup and the Google Keyword Tool - complete with pictures.

• Aaron Wall from SEOBook reminds us that Google Product Search results appear above organic search listings, and unlike AdWords, this traffic is free. But there may come a day when Google Products graduates to pay-per-click so take advantage while you can.

• Search Engine Journal explains how good old-fashioned link building (not paid links) is typically done. Good intro for those new to SEO.

Web Analytics

• If you’ve never looked under the hood of your web analytics because it’s too overwhelming, Avanash Kaushik can “demystify” it for you with this easy to follow and humorous post.

Email Marketing

• Justin Palmer gives some fabulous tips on writing email subject lines.

• The Email Experience Council explains “whitelists” - the different types and why they may not be enough to ensure your email deliverability as email programs move towards reputation-based systems.
• Jordan Ayan recounts his experience with cheesy “12 Days of Christmas” email campaigns from not one but three B2C marketers. A good example of why you should be careful with your email frequency or you risk losing subscribers.
• Better Retail noticed Zappos doing a very neat thing - using a drop-down menu on the forward-to-friend feature that captures the intent of the word-of-mouth event.