One of the most popular posts ever on this blog was The Social Media Email Signature , in which I noted that "In the old days, email signatures pretty much just mirrored business card information (which is still the case for most people).A growing number of Web 2.0-savvy executives, however, are breaking out of the old mold and creatively integrating social networking into their email sign-off." It clearly struck a cord, and traffic-wise, it didn't hurt that Guy Kawasaki tweeted the post. It helped. In fact. In Outlook, it's a bit more work but not terribly difficult. Click "New." MORE >>

The problem is that any business area or profession that experiences unusual growth (think ad-supported "free" online services in 1999, or real estate from 2002-2008) inevitably attracts, along with some very bright people committed to their new craft, a less savory crowd of opportunistic, incompetent or even unscrupulous entrants as well. Nothing wrong with that, competition is good! Particularly for buyers.) Here are seven characteristics to help avoid hiring one of those types for your next SEO project. Irrelevant experience. Most of the good ones came out of either marketing or IT. MORE >>

AdWords Management : How ROI, Costs, and Services Measure Up for Your Business by Pure Visibility Steve Loszewski explains how to use the AdWords Traffic Estimator tool to calculate the potential value of AdWords for your business, and gives tips for maximizing that value. How can you utilize rich media ads to take advantage of the coverage provided by Google's content network? Which AdWords reports are the most critical, and how you can take full advantage of the information they provide? Another Inside AdWords post worth checking out is AdWords Editor 7.5.1 MORE >>

Business-friendly video sites like Vimeo , Viddler and Blip.tv But small businesses who want to take advantage of online video can be caught in a quandary. Convert PowerPoint to Flash While Flash programming is a challenging and specialized skill few business people probably want to master, almost everyone can use PowerPoint. Online video is hot. Yeah, and people gamble in casinos, I know; what a profound observation of the blatantly obvious.) According to Compete.com , YouTube had nearly 86 million unique visitors and more than half a billion site visits last month. MORE >>

I was recently invited to give a presentation on the "do's and don'ts" of creating a successful business blog. What about being positive —isn't that an important attribute for a successful business blog? More to come. ** technorati tags: effective business blogging, persistence, personality, passion, blog promotion, social networking sites, RSS feed aggregators, cross-linking with other blogs, positive, successful business blog, prodigious, patience del.icio.us The blogger also reveals himself or herself through a short bio, picture and contact information. MORE >>