Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

Why I'm Promoting the Social Media Telesummit

As you may have noticed, for the last few weeks I've been actively promoting my friend Leesa Barnes' upcoming Social Media Telesummit, which takes place February 20-29, 2008.

I've also been totally upfront about the fact that I'm one of Leesa's affiliate partners, which means I will receive a portion of the registration fees from referrals I send her way. (For the record, I plan to donate a portion of my cut to charity.)

A number of people have asked me why I am helping spread the word about the Social Media Telesummit, so I figured I'd answer that question on my blog.

First of all, I have tremendous admiration for Leesa Barnes. She's smart, funny, and totally committed to educating and inspiring people to use and benefit from the new media. She's taught me a lot over the last few years, and I've tried to return the favour as often as I can. That's why I signed on.

Second, I'm blown away by the depth and breadth of the speakers Leesa has lined up for the event. Paul Colligan, Sherman Hu, Kate Trgovac, Darren Barefoot, Julie Szabo, Jason Van Orden, Andy Wibbels ... and so many others as well. I'm sorry, but I don't know too many other events that offer a truly international roster of social media and Internet marketing experts like this one.

Third, I love the fact that this is a virtual event that anyone from anywhere can participate in. (Well, if they register for it, that is!) For me, personally, this makes the Social Media Telesummit very convenient as I can learn on my own time, at my own pace, and from the location of my choosing.

Finally, I got the chance to experiment with using social media to promote the event, most notably Facebook. If ever an event called for such an approach, it was this one. That, for me, has been the most rewarding part of this experience to date.

I do hope you register for, and participate in, the Social Media Telesummit. Even if you don't, at least now you know why I've been encouraging you to do so.

Domain Names Are the Stars of Tinseltown Conference

Last week I was in Hollywood, California attending and speaking at DOMAINfest 2008, one of the domain industry's two big conferences. Attendance was up this year with nearly 700 people attending from more than 25 countries. Many of the attendees were domainers (domain name investors) looking to buy, sell, and network.

I attended a number of sessions over the course of the event and thought I'd share a few highlights:

"Domain Names and the Law"

Domain name legal expert John Berryhill cautioned domain owners to be wary of vaguely worded purchase inquiries that don't explicitly offer to buy the domain; they could be lawyers representing trademark holders who are trolling with a different agenda (e.g. gathering info for a future legal claim against the unsuspecting domain owner).

Berryhill says, "The best trademark search tool is Google," as opposed to relying on official trademark databases.

"Domainers Town Hall with Frank Schilling"

This session was a Q&A with Frank Schilling, one the most famous and successful domainers in the world. Here are some choice quotes from Frank:

• "Domain names ARE the Internet."
• "There's no shelf life on domain names...domains are like Cognac" - on domain names as assets.
• Owners of even just ten domains will be the media companies of the future."

When asked, Frank said he owns about 370,000 domain names that are managed as a business by a small team of five, including himself and his wife.

"Understanding the Big Picture"

Monty Cahn from Moniker provided some insights into the overall strength of the domain industry. Cahn says 70% of Internet users are using direct navigation (typing a domain into the browser address window) to get to a site. He also predicts that aftermarket (previously-owned) domain name sales will be a $1 billion business in 2010. Cahn estimates that also by 2010, 240 million domain names will have been registered. For reference, that's about double the amount that are registered today.

(My Tucows colleague James Koole helped with this report.)

DOMAINfest 2008

I will be speaking at, and attending, DOMAINfest, January 21-23, 2008 in Los Angeles, California. DOMAINfest is the domain industry's other big industry event (along with TRAFFIC), and this will be my first time attending.

I will be participating in a panel discussion on January 22nd entitled "Branding for Gold, Balancing Hype and Reality." Joining me on the panel will be David Sams, Mike "Zappy" Zapolin, and Andy Miller.

I believe we're going to discuss and debate the 'brandability' of domain names. That should be a lively discussion.

I'm particularly looking forward to the SnapNames Live Auction since one of the many gems from the Tucows domain portfolio will be on auction.

For more information about the conference, visit the official DOMAINfest Website.

Recommended: Podcasting for Profit, by Leesa Barnes

I am so not into book reviews, however last week I had the honour of leading a roundtable discussion on podcasting at the Digital Marketing Conference. Near the end of the session I was asked to recommend a book on the subject of podcasting. That book was, and is, Podcasting for Profit, by the multi-talented Leesa Barnes.

Leesa's book was published a few months ago, and I've been meaning to blog about it ever since. Podcasting for Profit is unique in that it's not a technical 'how-to' manual about the production side of creating a podcast, nor is it one of those cheezy 'become an Internet radio star' publications. Plenty of those kinds of books kicking around already!

Podcasting for Profit, on the other hand, is focused on the business side of podcasting. Amen!

This is the book to pick up if you're struggling with whether or not you or your company or your clients should be podcasting. And if you've already decided to move forward with podcasting, Leesa's book will help you identify new business opportunities related to podcasting that you might never have thought of.

Written in a warm, honest, and down-to-earth style (it's by Leesa Barnes, after all), Podcasting for Profit is highly recommended to anyone interested in understanding the business implications of this exciting new medium.

You can find out more about the book at http://www.leesabarnes.com/book/.

P.S. I'm also supremely flattered to be mentioned in Podcasting for Profit, along with lots of other podcasters whose work I admire. Congratulations, Leesa!

2007 Digital Marketing Conference

The death of Princess Diana. The Bre-X scandal. James Cameron's Titanic.

Where were you in 1997? And what were you doing?

Although it seems hard to believe, this year marks the - gasp! - 10th anniversary of the Canadian Marketing Association's Digital Marketing Conference.

I'm on the organizing committee for this conference and we've really tried to pull out all the stops in honour of this year's first decade mark.

Some of the featured speakers we've lined up include Mike Murphy from Facebook, Chuck Porter from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and Simon Assaad from Heavy.com.

Ipsos Reid returns for a second year with the results of The Canadian Digital Marketing Pulse survey and we've just added a very special surprise session for Thursday afternoon featuring four Canadians you won't want to miss.

The enormously popular roundtables, "The Experience Exchange," are back by popular demand, and yes, yours truly will be moderating one of the roundtables on podcasting.

If you're serious about Internet marketing, please join me and a few hundred other Internet marketing enthusiasts at the 10th annual Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto, Canada on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26.

For more information and to register, visit the 2007 Digital Marketing Conference Website.

I've Joined Tucows as General Manager, Domain Portfolio

Today's the day I finally get to spill the beans about the amazing new job I've just started!

I've joined Tucows, one of the oldest and most legendary Internet companies in the world, as their General Manager, Domain Portfolio.

Here's a link to the full press release announcing the news:

Tucows Appoints Internet Veteran Bill Sweetman as General Manager of its Domain Name Portfolio

Tucows has an awesome portfolio of domain names, and I'm going to be leading the charge to further monetize that portfolio as well as develop new products and services related to the portfolio. Translation: I'm going to be performing Domain Name Karate as a full-time job!

When presented with the opportunity to turn my long-held passion for domain names into a full-time gig, I leaped at the chance. This was truly one of those 'once-in-a-lifetime opportunities' and I knew I'd regret turning it down. Plus, I get to work again with Ken Schafer and a great team of people who are equally passionate about the domain name space.

Effective immediately, I will be working from the Tucows Toronto office in Liberty Village, and I will continue to blog and do speaking engagements in Canada and around the world.

Crossing 10,329 Miles with Communication Consultant Lee Hopkins

Last week I had the honour and pleasure of being interviewed by Australia's Lee Hopkins for his provocative Better Communication Results podcast. Despite the fact my Skype connection kept disconnecting us every 6 minutes or so, Lee and I had a lively 30-minute discussion about search engine optimization, business blogs, and social media.

One of the questions Lee asked me triggered me to tell the story of a friend who recently launched an online store and was looking for help with the search engine optimization.

Because my friend's store was created using a database-driven e-commerce solution that was not designed with search engines in mind and would therefore be impossible to properly optimize for search engines, I recommend that my friend focus his efforts instead on creating a blog related to the product he was selling.

I told my friend that this would be a far more effective way to generate targeted traffic than trying to optimize the existing site. Not only would it be good for the search engines, it would also be good for prospective customers. This is not the first time I've made this recommendation to someone, nor will it likely be the last. That's right, yet another great reason to consider launching a blog.

You can download an MP3 file of the full interview (14 MB) or, better yet, subscribe to Lee's podcast feed so you can receive this and future episodes of his Better Communication Results podcast.

15 Cool Things I Learned at the 2007 CMA Annual Convention

I had the privilege of attending, and speaking at, the 2007 Canadian Marketing Association Annual Convention in Ottawa earlier this month. Here are a few fascinating tidbits I gleaned from the many excellent talks and presentations I attended:

• Marketers need to learn how to 'outsource' the marketing to the consumers.
• Marketers need to develop mechanisms to detect and nurture the brand ambassadors (i.e., those consumers who will willingly act as promoters).
• Mass advertising for the iPod didn't happen until 9 months after the product launched; until then it was all 'word of mouth' marketing by brand ambassadors.
  (Source: Dr. Joe Plummer, Advertising Research Foundation)

• "Don't fear theft of your ideas; fear obscurity."
• To today's 'Net Generation,' "choice is like oxygen."
• Google is the world's fourth largest computer hardware manufacturer (of data servers).
  (Source: Don Tapscott, New Paradigm)

• People want more of what they can get less of.
• 90% of people look for less risk (try to avoid risk) when it comes to making a decision.
• You are four times more likely to be a CEO in North America if you are over six feet tall.
  (Source: Heath Slawner, Hart Resource Development)

• 50% of complex search queries (in search engines) go unanswered.
• 40% of the Web is not searchable...yet.
  (Source: Owen Sagness, Microsoft Canada)

• WestJet receives 1,000+ unsolicited resumes a week.
• The airline has a Department of Culture that is responsible for "creating a remarkable (workplace) environment."
• WestJet holds retirement parties for the planes it takes out of service. At the last retirement party for a plane, over 600 employees showed up.
  (Source: Richard Bartrem, WestJet)

• 74% of bloggers say they are open to receiving product or service information from companies, but only 9% actually do.
  (Source: David Jones, Fleishman-Hillard)

Next year's CMA Annual Convention will be held in Toronto in May, 2008.

Podcast Idol, Anyone?

In a response to Joseph Jaffe's recent Most Valuable Blogs (MVB) contest, Kevin Behringer over at the Fly-Over Marketing blog has kicked off a Most Valuable Podcasts (MVP) contest.

But wait, it gets better...

I am pleased (if somewhat bewildered) to announce that my Marketing Martini podcast is one of the "Sweet 16" finalists for Most Valuable Podcast. And I'm truly flattered that the Martini shares the virtual limelight with some great podcasts like Joseph Jaffe's Across the Sound, Mitch Joel's Six Pixels of Separation, C.C. Chapman's Managing the Gray, any many more. Congratulations to all my fellow podcasters on the shortlist.

If you'd like to vote for the Marketing Martini and/or any of the other fine podcast nominees, follow this link.

Thanks, Kevin! Let the fun and games begin...

CMA Word of Mouth Marketing Conference 2007

I will be speaking at, and attending, the Canadian Marketing Association's Word of Mouth Marketing Conference, April 12, 2007 in Toronto, Canada. Unless I am mistaken, this is the inaugural year of this conference.

I will be participating in a panel discussion entitled "Going Viral & User Generated Media" moderated by Louis Gagnon, Vice-President, Marketing, monster.ca. Joining me on the panel will be Janet Kestin, Chief Creative Officer, Ogilvy & Mather and Martin Ouellette, President & Creative Director, Provokat.

I believe we're going to attempt to define what viral marketing is. That alone should be worth the price of admission! ;+)

I'm particularly looking forward to the luncheon keynote address by Kyle MacDonald of one red paperclip fame.

For more information about the conference, visit the official CMA Word of Mouth Marketing Conference Website.