Captivate offers greater options for interactivity, but also a significantly higher price tag. 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. Business-friendly video sites like Vimeo , Viddler and Blip.tv are also seeing impressive traffic growth. But small businesses who want to take advantage of online video can be caught in a quandary. Robin Good reviews three tools here : E.M. MORE >>

They need to go beyond content aggregation to conversation aggregation, facilitating not only publishing but also interactivity. Last week I asked the question: will content marketing kill trade publications ? Gordon Plutsky seems to answer in the affirmative, contending that marketers need to set up their own content distribution channels , bypassing the trade media. Ted Bahr, on the other hand, not only won't concede the death of trade magazines but isn't willing even to give up on print versions of them. Conversation Aggregation. Research. Ratings and Rankings. Not possible. MORE >>

Resources for starting a new business, ideas for naming that business, mistakes to avoid, lead generation strategies to embrace, how to apply some of Warren Buffet's wisdom to online marketing efforts.find all of that and more here in this final collection of the best posts on strategy and branding from the past year. What's in A Name? by MediaPost Online Publishing Insider Kory Kredit explores the inexact science of business naming, from descriptive ( AdBuyer.com ) to ont-quite-real words ( Aquisio ) to misspellings ( Personifi ) to WTF? Jivox, xy3). Warren Buffett, Search Marketing Guru? MORE >>

Any type of marketing copywriting is a blend of art and science. Writing for the web involves requires as much art as any other form, plus another level of science. Here are some tools, tips and guidance for crafting more effective and compelling web copy, from among the best articles and blog posts on web and SEO copywriting from last year. You can make great stuff happen with great writing and a lousy web site. Try the opposite, though. dare ya. The best way to cultivate that skill, next to writing for 3 hours a day, is to read. Watching TV with subtitles does not count. MORE >>

Once you've optimized the list of keywords in your search engine marketing campaign, tweaked the bids and crafted stellar ad text to bring visitors to your site, landing page design is critical to converting those visitors into sales or leads. Here are a few of the best posts about SEM landing page design from last year. Good and bad landing page examples by CDF Networks Chad Frederiksen gets right to the point with this brief but helpful post on what separates bad landing page design (e.g., clutter) from good (a clear call to action among other attributes). MORE >>