SEO. Search engine optimization. SEM. Internet marketing. Keyword research! You’ve heard the buzzwords and seen the effects on the Web. Maybe you want to know why Uncle Bob’s Widget-Wrangling Emporium uses the same phrases to describe its wares over and over again, or why an errant Google search dumped you into a wasteland of nonsense text and wacky links. Our blog has some answers (we’ve written a lot of material for beginners), but it’s high time we tackled the big question behind it all: How do people start an Internet marketing campaign?

A would-be marketing consultant sent me a pretty silly email today. I want to share it with you because it’s a perfect examples of what to avoid when you’re looking for marketing help. I edited out repetitive dumbness (you can only mock someone using bad grammar to offer content services so many times), and removed the lime green text color, but the rest is straight from the original, awful email.

Last time around we chewed on some food for thought about domain registration. We explored the “big three” top level domains (TLDs): dot-com, dot-net and dot-org, along with cousins dot-biz and dot-info. This time, we’re going to explore a few more TLD strategies. It’s a bit of a trip, because more than anything else, TLDs help the Web live up to its “world wide” moniker.

Domain names are weird. In the wild and woolly days of the early Web, users picked domains based on a quirky sense of humor or raw, boring functionality. A domain name was nothing more than an address, and unless you picked a strange one, it was about as significant to you as your street number: important, but hardly representative of who you are.

Application simplifies web form management

Peterborough, Ontario, Canada: GILL Media released its Form Feedback system, opening its web form management tools to both clients and GILL Media Partners.

Form Feedback is a custom database management system that’s optimized to handle web forms, including surveys, requests for information and log in information. Instead of editing forms and exporting data from the hosting page, GILL Media’s partners can manage them from a central database with an intuitive interface. In a few simple clicks, users may view submitted information directly or export it into Word, Excel or CSV formats.

If you are selling a home, success begins with “curb appeal. If you are running a brick-and-mortar business, next to location, presentation is the perhaps most important factor in attracting new business. The same is true for an Internet-based business. Web design is vital to initial and continued success.

Middle-aged men often remark that they are “built for comfort, not for speed.” (Of course, when they were twenty-something, they were flashing abs and flexing biceps, but we digress.) The successful website must be built both for comfort and speed. Today’s Internet users want clarity and functionality. They want to know where to go and how to get there. If they cannot comfortably find their way around your site, they will surely find their way out of it.