I can’t believe our last best of the web post was really last year!
Well, okay, I can. 
It’s really only been a few weeks, but those weeks have been busy in the blogosphere. Between taking a break and celebrating with our nearest and dearest, the beginning of the New Year is a time to reflect on what has gone by and what is to come; that’s precisely what we’ve been doing at Firepole Marketing, and plenty of other blogs have had the same idea.
There have been years in review, round-up posts, reflections on the year that passed, and inspiration for the year to come. Despite being more or less MIA for the past couple of weeks, I’ve read a lot of them, and I’m going to share the creme de la creme with you.
So without further ado – our first Best of the Web for 2012!
Look Back on the Old, Looking Towards the New
The New Year always brings a few things with it: a new calendar, some hopeful resolutions, new business goals and always, always, recap and round-up posts from the year gone by. Here are some of my favorites:
- 14 Lessons from One Year of Blogging (Pocket Changed)
- My 2011 Annual Review (Life is Limitless)
- 20 Life Changing Habits to Make 2012 the Best Year Ever (The Sales Lion)
Tips, Advice, and Food for Thought
We always love a good, solid informational post on Firepole Marketing, so here are some of the latest and greatest:
- Starting a Business Isn’t All Unicorns and Rainbows (the Other Side of the Story) (Corbett Barr)
- Banner Advertising: Viable Money Making Blogging Solution? (Traffic Generation Cafe)
- Here’s the Biggest Mistake I see Bloggers Make (DIY Themes)
- Free Useful Icons to Use in Your Site (Arterruption)
- Magnanimous Donation leads to Speculation (Inside Influence)
- The Misconception that is Inspired Writing and Blogging and Do ‘Top Blogger Lists’ Really Mean Anything At All? (The Sales Lion)
- 5 Marketing Lessons You Can Learn from a Weird “Real World” Business (CopyBlogger)
- How to Make Your Blog Stand Out in a Crowded Niche without Guest Posting (Think Traffic)
- Whose Fault is it When Website Visitor Don’t Buy? (Computor Companion)
Interviews and Mentions
There’s nothing that makes a blogger feel quite so good about themselves as being asked for an interview, or finding your work mentioned by someone you respect. It’s a really unique feeling, and a few bloggers out there have given it to me recently with interesting, insightful interviews and mentions.
If you haven’t had a chance to read or listen to these yet, check them out (they mention a lot of other great people, too!):
- The Best of Copyblogger from 2011 (CopyBlogger)
- How Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing Took over the Blogosphere in Less Than a Year (WriterViews)
- Danny Iny’s Interview – On MBA, Getting Subscribers and Modern Publishing (Write Region)
- 13 Evergreen, Incredibly Effective Ways To Pull Traffic To Your Website (Fetch Profits)
- Top 12 Posts from December 2011 (Write, Change, Grow)
- 50 Posts on Engagement for Bloggers (Wibiya)
- How Danny Iny Scrambled up the Firepole (Write, Speak, Sell)
- Discover the Value in Danny Iny (Discover Local and Online Auctions)
- The Freddy Krueger of Blogging (Deliberate Ink)
- The 12 New Media Days of Christmas 2011: 5 Traffic Tips (Blog World)
- Check Out My Glorious Guide to Crowdsourcing Content and Help me Win a Car! (Freelance Writing Blog)
- How 11 Awesome Blogs Got Their Start From The People Who Started Them (Action In Progress)
Engagement from Scratch!
Positive response to Engagement from Scratch! continues unabated, to my ongoing delight.
Here are some more bloggers who took the time to get in touch with me, or otherwise write about the book. I am deeply grateful to all the bloggers who have done so.
- Three Small Business Books Worth Reading (Small Biz Trends)
- A Conversation with Danny Iny, Author of Engagement From Scratch! (Ghost Writer Dad)
- Interview with Danny Iny on Engagement From Scratch (Online Business Hour)
- Engagement from Scratch! Recommended Holiday Reading (Triberr)
- Engagement from Scratch – An Interview with Danny Iny (Word Chef and Blog Talk Radio)
We’ve listed a lot of great sites here, but if you think we’ve missed out on anything important, let us know in the comments!
Danny Iny (@DannyIny), a.k.a. the “Freddy Krueger of Blogging”, teaches marketing that works at Firepole Marketing. Together with Guy Kawasaki, Brian Clark and Mitch Joel, he wrote the book on building engaged audiences from scratch (available on Amazon, or as a free download).
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Thank you so much for mentioning my blog’s link in this post. I’m honoured.
Write Region.
You’re very welcome, Farhan, I really enjoyed the interview.
Very interesting list Danny, I’ve found some articles which seems pretty interesting. As written at Marcus’ place useful lists spreading knowledge are pretty much appreciated. A good way to know great posts and authors which could go unnoticed.
Next year I have to be here too.
Hey buddy, you can be here as soon as you’re ready. If you’ve got a great piece of content, don’t wait for us to find it – send me a link.
Hey Danny, thanks for including my lessons learned post on here.
You were definitely a part of the relationship piece I talked about.
Likewise, Caleb, it’s been a blast connecting with you in 2011. I’m looking forward to great things for us this year!
Howdy Danny,
Many thanks for including our interview in your roundup. Though with just how many honourable mentions you get: I kind of wish I had written a snappier headline ;- )
–
Michael
Thank YOU, Michael, for doing the interview – I really appreciate it!
As always Danny, great list! I haven’t read several of these posts, so thanks for sharing.
And thank you for including The Freelance Writing Blog…fingers crossed that i win that car!
Fingers crossed indeed – let me know when you’ve won, so that I can uncross them.
Aaahhhhhh! More stuff to read and learn.
It never ends! Haha
Thanks for the references.
Nope, never ends. Not for us, anyways…
Great name you picked “Hooker” hehe.
I cant wait for the 2013. oh wait, yes I can, may it never come (dont wanna be 22).
Thanks a million for the mention guys, great best of the web post as always!
You’re very welcome, Caroline, thanks for writing such a great post – I really enjoyed it!
Yay, I made it!
Thanks so much, Danny – wherever do you find the time to put together these massive posts? It might look easy to some, but you and I know they are not!
Of course you made it! If not you, then who?
I just keep a notepad file of great posts, and add in URLs as I read them. It takes a couple of hours to compile it all into a post at the end of it, but it isn’t too bad.
Thanks for including me in your wrap up and thanks again for sharing your thoughts for the post!
I’m stoked to dig into a few of these posts that I haven’t read yet!
You bet, Jon. And block off a good amount of time – I’ve read a lot of good stuff lately.
Thanks for sharing so much, I’m delighted to see all these interesting posts. I’m really glad that 2011 made me discover your brilliant blog. So far the posts I’ve read were amazing and I’m sure you still have more in store fur your readers.
You’re very welcome, John, and welcome to Firepole Marketing. There’s definitely a lot of great stuff in store, so stay tuned…
Hey Danny,
I can’t believe you mentioned me here. Good lord, what an honor this is for me. Thank you so much for the love Danny. I am beginning to believe in the power of “giving”, the “community”, and the intense media that the Internet is.
By the way, I am taking you up on the 6 month – 10,000 unique challenge
Ash
You totally earned it, Ashwin, your post was awesome, and I was very flattered by your very kind mentions of me. And that’s great – I’ll watch for a status update from you at the beginning of July (and sooner, of course).
Hey Danny,
I am learning from you, that’s all there is to it: learn & implement. I am getting a little jittery now that I committed. A little nervous. But what the heck, that’s what the whole challenge is about. I will lurk and comment on your blog meanwhile. Reading your book again
Ash
Learn and implement is good, but don’t forget that I’ve made my share of mistakes… you’re going to blaze some fresh trails, too, and I’d love for you to share those with us when you do.
Danny,
Talking about mistakes, I think I’ve been living in Mistakeville
Certainly! I will update you on both my mistakes and achievements 
Sure thing. Until then, I’ll plaster your name all over the web 
I hope in 2013 you will learn to read Hebrew, that way you can add my blog in the 2012 list as well
Great list of great tips.
As it happens, I read Hebrew fluently… but most of our audience doesn’t, so it would be hard to promote your work to our list. :S
Hey Danny, some really awesome reading there. Just had a good hour of jam packed info, thanks for the link post very much appreciated.
Thanks again
Dan
An abundance of information on this page. Thanks for gathering it all together nicely. I’ve been surfing off this page for most of the afternoon
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