October has been a month of migration, webinars, contests, updates and exciting launches.
Registration for our biannual Marketing that Works program went live earlier this week, and we’re very excited to be ushering in a new wave of eager students. 
So yes, we’ve been really busy (as always), but apparently so has everyone else in the blogosphere. I’ve read lots of great articles and have put together a list of our favorites for this month’s Best of the Web feature… so sit tight, grab your reading glasses and enjoy!
Thinking Outside the Box
With the wealth of detailed how-tos and step-by-step guides out there, it is refreshing to come across someone who has achieved success in an unexpected way. Learning from someone who is looking at things from a new perspective can be very inspiring. These articles are about unconventional point-of-views and paradigm shifts:
- Don’t Read the Instruction Manual: It’s Time to Improvise (Word Chef)
- Jason McCue: Terrorism is a Failed Brand (TEDtalks)
- How Much Luck do you Need in Order to Make Money Online? (1st Web Designer)
- The Age of Disgruntled Marketing Employees Turned Renegades is Here (The Sales Lion)
- The Sales Funnel: How to Create Your Most Important System (Pajama Productivity)
Email Marketing
If you’re a follower of Firepole Marketing, you know we have a soft spot for email marketing. But if you’ve tried it yourself, you know it’s not as easy as it seems! Here are some tips on how to use email marketing effectively to communicate your message to your audience.
- Email Testing: 3 Greatest Hits from WhichTestWon.com (AWeber)
- How to Build A Profitable Email List (Founder Tips)
- Best Times to Send Email for Opens and Click-Throughs [Infographic] (MarketingProfs)
Content is King
You can have the greatest marketing plan in the world, but if that plan doesn’t include valuable content, your customers will see right through you. We loved these articles on how to keep your content fresh, engaging and exciting:
- Newsjacking vs New-Jacking: Be First With Content and Dominate Your Niche (Sales Lion)
- Why No One Cares What You Think (And How to Stop Being So Freaking Boring) (CopyBlogger)
- A Multidisciplinary Approach to Breathtaking Content (Businesses {grow})
- The Complete Guide to Lead Generating and Content Marketing with @edocr (Ian Anderson Gray)
Influence
The importance of good content goes without saying, but without an audience that is willing to listen, your hard work will be in vain. If you feel that you’re not getting the attention you deserve for all the hours you put in, these articles might offer some useful insight:
- 35 Experts Weigh-in How We Create Influence on Facebook (Businesses {grow})
- Why the Most Important Part of Your Brand is Invisible (Businesses {grow})
- 5 Ways to Grow the Audience You Deserve Without Guest Blogging (Think Traffic)
Trends: Present and Future
Last month, we asked the readers what they thought of Pay with a Tweet practices. The crazy amount of feedback we received from the post showed its controversial nature. Whether you’re for or against up-and-coming marketing trends, it is essential that you be in the know! Here is some insight into some fresh ideas:
- Pay With a Tweet vs. Pay with an Email [Case Study with Infographic] (Unbounce)
- Incorporating Video Into a Teaching Product – Interview Segment (One Spoon At a Time)
- Smart Gamification: Seven Core Concepts for Creating Compelling Experiences (video) (YouTube)
- Transformational Entrepreneurship: Where Technology Meets Societal Impact (Startup Genome)
- Facebook: I Want My Friends Back (Dangerous Minds)
Measuring Success
Avinash Kaushik’s analytics blog Occam’s Razor is great for helping you to quantify something that can otherwise seem pretty vague. The blog over at Unbounce is great for a similar reason; their detailed case studies provide black-and-white examples of what works and what doesn’t. Read on for some ideas on how you can measure and interpret the success of your blog or website.
- Facebook Advertising/Marketing: Best Metrics, ROI, Business Value (Occam’s Razor)
- Global Multichannel Consumer Behaviour (Research/Purchase) Analysis (Occam’s Razor)
- 7 Blogs Designed for Conversion and What You Can Learn From Them (Unbounce)
- 8 Small Business Product Landing Pages Critiqued for Conversion (Unbounce)
Cautionary Tales
For every entrepreneur success story, there are a handful of unfortunate tales of someone who made bad decisions or just had a lot of bad luck. These articles could prevent you from making a big mistake…
- Getty Images Extortion Letter (Ryan Healy)
- Attack of the Trollogs! Plus More Thoughts about Getty Extortion Letters (Ryan Healy)
- The Danger of Celebritizing Entrepreneurship (Harvard Business Review)
List Posts
Sometimes, you just want an idea outlined in a simple and easily digestible way. Really, who hasn’t been tempted by the oh-so-seductive headline of a list post?
- The 40 Step Checklist for a Highly Successful Launch (Paid to Exist)
- The Ultimate 11-Step Plan to Launching a Successful Business Blog in 6 Months or Less (The Sales Lion)
- How to Rebrand: 19 Questions to Ask Before You Start (DBD International)
- Dream to Doer: 7 Practical Steps for Taking Action and Seeing Results (The Next Twelve)
Kind Mentions and Interviews
As always, I am grateful for everyone who was kind enough to mention me or Firepole Marketing on their blog or website. Check out these kind mentions and two really great interviews.
- Tiffinbox Got Audited… By Danny Iny (Tiffinbox)
- How to Future Proof Your Business by Building an Engaged Audience (Steve Gordon Marketing)
- SEO for Guest Posting; How to Use Ahrefs.com to Improve Your Writing (The School of Natural Voice)
- Naked Marketing with Special Guest Danny Iny (Michael Burt Enterprises)
And a Guest Post!
I have a lot of projects on the go, but I wouldn’t be the Freddy Krueger of Blogging if I didn’t make time for a little guest posting…
- The Biggest Lie in Email Marketing (Why Most Email is Junk Mail)
There’s a lot of great content here, but did you read something great that we left out? Leave a comment and let us know…
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).
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you for including us on your list this week, Danny! Honored to be here.
Whoot! Always happy to be included in such stellar company. Thanks, Danny!
Bookmarked! Great reads! Definitely a good resource for branding too! Marketing a product or service is definitely how you manage your branding.
This is a fantastic recap to an incredibly enlightening and insightful month. This is a fantastic collective of entrepreneurial leaders! Thanks for everything you do and are Danny!
This is a fantastic recap to an incredibly enlightening and insightful month. An incredible collective of entrepreneurial leaders! Thanks for everything you do and are Danny!