Recent Internet Marketing Articles for 17 Jan, 2012, Annotated Links Dr. Ralph F. Wilson , Web Marketing Today - Jan 17, 2012

Here are some helpful articles to learn from this week:

Arthur Middleton Hughes, 6 Mistakes to Avoid in Email Testing, eMarketing & Commerce (eM+C), 3 Jan 2012. Email testing mistakes are: (1) making too many changes at once, (2) looking only at conversions, (3) offering too many choices, (4) not knowing the territory, (5) testing by committee, and (6) using personalization in the subject line.

Jakob Nielsen, Thinking Aloud: The #1 Usability Tool, Alertbox, 16 Jan 2012. Simple usability tests where users think out loud are cheap, robust, flexible, and easy to learn. Thinking aloud should be the first tool in your UX toolbox, even though it entails some risks and doesn't solve all problems.

Crosby Grant, PPC Planning Matrix, Search Engine Land, 13 Jan 2012. Explains a tool to explain PPC campaigns to customers using a software tool called the  PPC Planning Matrix. Illustrates with screen shots.

Carrie Hill, Justified - Beginning Steps To Proving Your Internet Marketing Point, Search Engine Land, 13 Jan 2012. Explains how to justify your marketing needs to managers and bean counters.

Tal Nathan, 10 Email Marketing Tips to Spruce up Your Welcome Messages in 2012, ClickZ, 10 Jan 2012. To improve email welcome messages, personalize the subject line and welcome copy, remind me how I signed up, set frequency expectations, interactively profile me, let me easily unsubscribe, add to safe sender list, give me an offer, tell me how to refer a friend, don't say it all in one message, and give your welcome message some seasonality.

Mike Grehan, How Search Engines Work, ClickZ, 11 Jan 2012. Graphic shows how search engine operate, plus basic explanation.

Crispin Sheridan, HTML5 - Is It Worth the Effort? ClickZ, 11 Jan 2012. Cites new tags available in HTML5, improvement of user experience, SEO friendly tags, etc. and sees it useful for sites rich in audio and video, especially for mobile users with devices that don't support Flash.

Robin Neifield, The Real Value of Lifetime Value, ClickZ, 11 Jan 2012. Explains how knowing the lifetime value (LTV) of a customer can impact finding, securing, retaining, defending, and growing customers.

Gregg Stewart, Mobile Website or Please Read the Fine Print? ClickZ, 12 Jan 2012. Recommends: be succinct, give room for fingers to tap buttons, be mobile-specific, m-commerce tap and buy, contact and customer service, integration with full site or aps, and apps vs. browsers.

Bryan Eisenberg, Courtesy: What Comes Before Customer-Centricity, ClickZ, 13 Jan 2012. Explains points of necessary online courtesy for your website and customer service.

Lisa Buyer, How to Create a Social Media Editorial Calendar, Search Engine Watch, 12 Jan 2012. Explains the benefits of setting up an editorial calendar, explaining goals, frequency and timing, themes, sharing, taking inventory, and connecting with print campaigns. Compares tools.

Kerry Dean, 5 Tips For Optimal Mobile Site Indexing, Search Engine Land, 12 Jan 2012. Discusses webmaster tools, sitemaps, robots.txt files, links to and from your main site, and a mobile site linking building campaign.

Jenny Halasz, 5 Questions To Streamline Your Keyword Research, Search Engine Land, 10 Jan 2012. Provides 10 questions to ask potential clients so you can understand what keywords are needed for their site.