Yesterday I presented two presentations at Digital Atlanta, a week-long series of events on social media and online marketing. My two presentations were 5 Ways to Integrate Mobile Into Your Marketing Mix and 10 Essential Strategies to E-Commerce Success. I’ve included the presentations below for anyone that attended.
Authorize.net Outage Adds Excitement to Holiday Weekend
7/4/2009 By Leave a Comment
Authorize.net, one of the largest payment gateways in the world, was down for 15 hours after a fire at Fisher Plaza, the Seattle, WA based datacenter where they were hosted.
I was at Starbucks working on an email newsletter with an Independence Day promotion for 2BigFeet.com, and was just about to send it to our entire subscriber list when I noticed J’s tweet. I started researching the outage and opened a Twitter Search for the hashtag #authorize and the phrases “authorize.net” and “auth.net” to keep up with the situation as it progressed.
Soon after I noticed the problem, I started getting calls from customers at 2BigFeet who were trying to place orders online but were getting errors. Not long after that, I got several calls from clients who also noticed their websites were not accepting payments.
As a temporary fix, I switched our e-commerce software to manual processing. All online orders were accepted, we would have to run the credit cards later using our order management software offline. I went ahead and sent the Independence Day email to our subscribers and orders started flowing in again.
I kept following the issue throughout the day and wrote a blog post about it this morning on The E-Commerce Blog. I think Authorize.net really messed up on this one. I, for one, am looking for a new or additional gateway provider.
“Online Marketing Inside Out” Available Now!
5/28/2009 By 5 Comments
Back in February I mentioned that I was writing a book about Online Marketing with Shayne Tilley. I’m excited to announce that the book, now titled Online Marketing Inside Out, has been released and is now available for purchase on SitePoint.
If you have a web site and you want to promote it but are unsure where to start, this book is for you. It covers all aspects of Online Marketing including press releases, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media, email marketing, and more.
Special Bonus from Darren Rowse of ProBlogger
As a special bonus, if you order from SitePoint direct you’ll also get ProBlogger Darren Rowse’s “31 Days to Build a Better Blog” workbook FREE (a $20 value). Darren’s workbook is packed with valuable content from his recent “31 Days” series on ProBlogger.net, plus over 6,000 words of new content in a professionally designed ebook. Hear what Darren had to say about Online Marketing Inside Out:
It is a great resource for those wanting to market products or services on the Web. This book shows you how to reach customers through podcasting, blogs, social networks, video, email, and contextual advertising and much more.
You’ll also get the satisfaction of knowing you helped me feed my family… SitePoint giving me a generous commission on books sold through the links on my site.
Here’s a peek at the Table of Contents:
- The Changing Face of Marketing
- 21st Century Public Relations and Media
- Turn Page Views into Profit
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media
- Email Marketing
- Affiliate Marketing
- Online Advertising
- Tying It All Together
So what are you still doing here? Go over to SitePoint and buy Online Marketing Inside Out today!
Still with me? Okay, if you’re still not convinced, check out this awesome shot of the book after it arrived at SitePoint headquarters earlier today, fresh off the presses…
Qualified Google Advertising Professional
2/2/2009 By Leave a Comment
I am now a Qualified Google Advertising Professional. I took the exam today, along with Brant Kelsey and Katie McGinty, from Kelsey Advertising & Design. We’ve been going through the lessons in the Learning Center studying for the exam, and we all passed by a wide margin.
What is a Qualified Google Advertising Professional?
A Google AdWords professional is an individual that has met the following requirements:
- Managed an Adwords account for at least 90 days
- Met a minimum spending requirement by Google for at least 90 days
- Passed the Qualified Google Advertising Professional exam
The certification program is meant to show potential clients and employers that you have a solid understanding of Google AdWords and pay-per-click marketing.
Why Get Certified?
I wanted to get certified for two reasons:
- Learn more about Google AdWords so I can better manage client’s and my own accounts
- Use the certification as a marketing tool to show off our skill set and competency with online marketing
I’m not sure how many accounts we’ll land because we’re certified, but I think it will reinforce our expertise with our current clients and maybe even help to drive home the fact that online advertising continues to grow and become more prominent.
Other Certifications
Google has two other certifications I would like to get this year:
- Google Website Optimizer Authorized Consultant (WOAC)
- Google Analytics Authorized Consultant (GAAC)
Those will be a little more difficult to acheive. They don’t require a formal exam, but do require individual verification by Google (and require that you are a Qualified Google Advertising Professional). I’m looking forward to the challenge.
