The $20 ad campaign: small businesses find alternatives to Google AdWords — paidContent

Alternative ad brokers/scouts can place your ad on numerous small but targeted sites, for pennies per keyword, vs. dollars per through Google Adwords. Doesn't really replace the search results page positioning, but as long as you're getting business at an excellent ROI, do you care?

The $20 ad campaign: small businesses find alternatives to Google AdWords — paidContent:

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How To Go Viral (almost true)

Actually, they'll probably succeed...This is a parody for all those of us who report to pointy-haired bosses who say, "Make this go viral." Not sure the phb will get it, though, so be careful in sharing this!
News Talk 610 CKTB :: How To Go Viral - Larry Fedoruk :: Larry Fedoruk Blog:

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Are You Serious About Your Startup Idea? Here's Your Chance.

A true startup/entrepreneur curriculum, in just 4 weeks, involving the most successful startup accelerators (TechStars, etc.) and other groups that know what they're doing, and want to see viable companies emerge -- in just 4 weeks!
10,000 Startups – Startup Weekend Next « Steve Blank:

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Agency Wants You to Pitch to Them...But Will Reward a Winner

Clever way to get attention for the agency, maybe get some good clients (the ones that don't win the prize), and in any case a good opportunity for your company:

Agency Flips Pitch Process, Offers $100K in Services to Most Deserving Brand - Adrants:

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Free Tool to Audit Your Google Adwords Now That Policy Has Tightened

The updates aren't that serious -- no poor spelling or grammar, ads must relate to content of page, and a few others, but Wordstream suggests you take advantage of the update to see whether your PPC ads are targeting low value keywords, wasted spend on negative keywords and a few other factors.
Google's AdWords Policy Update: What SMBs Need to Know | WordStream:

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Are you paying attention? It might be that random "click" that leads to success

Frans Johansson wrote a good book called "The Medici Effect" but it seemed to be destined to be lost amid dozens of other books on innovation -- until his wife, a diversity executive asked him for help making the business case for diversity in hiring. She introduced him to her boss, and he eventually ended up reaching Chief Innovation Officers and CEOs as he had hoped -- but through the "side door strategy" of talking with diversity officers. Planned? Hardly.  Instant awareness? No, but his new book, "The Click Moment" might help you recognize your own serendipitous opportunity-- and how to create more of them.

When Success is Born Out of Serendipity - Frans Johansson - Harvard Business Review:

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Have a business idea using disruptive technology?

The Economist wants to know...and reward you with the opportunity to present it at the Ideas Economy: Innovation event next spring. InnoCentive - Challenge Overview:

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Bing is better...than it was, anyway.

Why am I so resistant to taking the Bing Challenge? Regardless, as a marketer, it's foolish to ignore 20% of the market (more or less, including Yahoo). And Bing's ads have just taken a step up by adding "sitelinks" -- additional direct links to important pages. Seems to me I've seen them elsewhere...but they're welcome, nonetheless! 

For more: http://community.bingads.microsoft.com/ads/en/bingads/b/blog/archive/2012/10/09/new-feature-introducing-sitelink-extensions-in-bing-ads-ppc-sem-advertising.aspx

Free Linkbuilding Webinar

As social media solidifies its position as one of the main, well, media platforms for business, you should not lose sight of the web's other subdisciplines. Here's a promising free webinar on one of my favorite activities, linkbuilding, that includes a section on "social signals." While the title, Five Steps for Building Links that Improve Search Results" is puzzling (after all, that's the point of linkbuilding), the giveaway is more interesting: "How to Integrate Social Media with Email and SEO: 9 tactics for leveraging your brand’s social network." If you don't make it to the webinar, don't worry -- I'll try to summarize tomorrow!