Free Online Marketing Courses From Google

Proficiency in marketing comes from knowledge and application. One way to improve the learning side of the equation is to take some free online marketing courses from Google.  It's especially useful for Google Analytics. Courses are available in these locations:


Heat Map Tools Reviews

I wanted to share some thoughts on Google's in-page analytics feature via email. In my experience, in-page analytics has always been super buggy, and I've never been able to get a lot of value out of it. That said, I'm definitely a fan of heat map analysis, and even more so, session recording services.  There are two very affordable alternatives that we recommend over Google's in-page analytics. They're significantly more stable, and provide way more value.  The tools are FullStory and HotJar.
 
 
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Quick Guide to Facebook Advertising

If you are looking for a quick guide to effectively advertising on Facebook, then I highly recommend this site put together by Buffer.The site and downloadable PDF covers the 11 ways you can advertise of Facebook along with specs and guidelines. It covers everything you need to know.  As a bonus resource, take a look at Snappa for creating Facebook campaign graphics (also good for any type of online graphics.)

 


Guide to Creating a Media Kit

If you are monetizing a blog you will need a media kit. It makes you look more professional to brands and puts forth the message that you treat your blog as a serious business. Brands want to work with professional bloggers they can count on not to flake out on fulfilling their side of the deal.  This is a helpful media kit guide. You can also improve the design with one of these media kit templates.
 
Consider adding testimonials to the media kit, particularly from professional bloggers.

Free Conference Call Platform Reviews

Image representing Wiggio as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBase

We just added an overview of the many free conference call platforms available.  Each gets the job done, but they do vary by bells and whistles provided.  Some such as Wiggio are built into cloud based team management platforms while others such as Rondee offer a solid conference call solution when features such as invitations and scheduling are required. Read more...
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Audio to Text Transcription Software

Anyone that needs to record and transcribe any audio, calls, focus groups, etc. should try Cogi.  The platform goes beyond trascribing audio to offering features such as browse search and review, and the ability to share recordings as MP3 file.

Any marketer or market researcher that has ever attempted to transcribe a focus group into text will find Cogi indispensable.


Brand Search Engine for Marketers

One of the challenges of branding is determining if the name is available on the multitude of social networks available.  KnowEm helps solve the problem by providing a free search engine that allows you to check for the use of your brand, product, personal name or user name instantly on over 575 popular and emerging social media websites. The brand name search engine also checks the entire USPTO Trademark Database.

If you do find that the brand name you want is taken, the staff at KnowEm will help you negotiate with the owner for a possible purchase.  

 

 


Measuring Online Page Speed

Here's a few tools I picked up at the Affiliate Summit New York Meetup. Thanks to Vinny O'Hare.  I'm still trying to understand how to read results, so feel free to leave a helpful comment.

As an aside, the benchmark Google standard is believed to be 4 seconds for page loading.  As a suggestion stack rank pages and bring time load times of worst performers.  By fixing the outliers, you'll bring the average load time for the entire site.  Of course look at your server, size or compression of picture.

Online Page Speed Tools

http://www.webpagetest.org/

Smush.it from Yahoo

PageSpeed – an open source browser add-on

Some tools suggested by Reel SEO

  • YSlow - suggests ways to improve speed
  • WebPagetest – shows a waterfall view of performance
  • Webmaster Tools – Site Performance Lab
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