As much as I love using Google’s products this definitely makes me think about that phrase “Big Brother is Watching You.”

Here’s something that will make you think

thanks to Ed Dale for pointing me to this video

I was reading on the Aweber blog today that they just released a new feature for their autoresponder service. It has to do with the broadcast archive that’s available. I haven’t really used this feature very much mainly because it looked terrible and unless I put a link back to my site in the email it doesn’t link back to my site. here are a couple of screen shoots that I took from the Aweber blog to show you how this visually makes a difference.

Before

After

Now the old look vs the new look is 1000 times better. Here are a couple things that I really like

• Branding Elements added
• Reader Engagement in the Sidebar

These are great additions to the once very boring RSS feed of your emails. But as  marketer I look at things a little different. The biggest glaring thing that I see is inserted into the footer.

Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with them branding their own product. I do that all the time. After the excitement wore off of this new feature the problem I have is that I’m an affiliate of Aweber. And if someone reads my RSS feed and clicks on that link will I get credit?

NO…

There is no way of inserting my affiliate link in there **Hint: This would be a great new feature Aweber**

I’ve sent out promotional emails for them in the past. Put banners out on several sites that I have but this would undermine everything that I’ve worked so hard to do.

Can I just get a little help here!

[stepping off my soapbox now]

The other issue that I have is just a small one.

I love the branding elements so I can keep my messages consistent but how about a link back to my own website in the sidebar or header image?

Internet users have been conditioned to look for them there and the only thing that happen is they will remain in the archive. Since this RSS feed is actually hosted on Aweber’s site I can understand them not wanting to link back to my site….

Wait….

No I can’t. I am a paying customer and they are using my content to promote (very quietly) their email autoresponder service.

WOW! This is Genius. It’s like integration marketing in reverse. I wish I would have thought about doing that with my customers.

Wait… I do. But I actually ask them first.

Even though this is a great new feature these two glaring things make it a big turn off for me and I probably won’t be using it.

Anyway… Here’s a great video about the new feature from Aweber.

This is going to be a short post just pointing out a new change recently with the Google algorithm.

But first I wanted to mention an update on my last post about Google Buzz. There were a lot of concerns about some of the privacy settings and how your information was being used. Google has made various updates and they mention the changes on their blog. Enough said.

A few days ago on the official Google blog they made a post about how webmasters and web site owners could specify your canonical. One of the biggest concerns for anyone that does SEO is that of duplicate content on their website. Now that Google, Yahoo and MSN (Bing) are going to start supporting the rel=”canonical” tag in the header it makes it easy for Google and the others to slap your website around if you have duplicate content.

For those that aren’t sure what I am referring to here is an example:

• http://micaljohnson.com
• http://www.micaljohnson.com
• http://micaljohnson.com/index.htm

All this links point to the same page and would cause a duplicate content penalty to be served. This is a very simple example. I’ll share more in a moment.

Those of us that use Wordpress blogs should be familiar with this because of the way the link structure of the blog works we often times end up with duplicate content. Thankfully the genius wordpress plugin creator Joost de Valk at Yoast.com made a great wordpress plugin to canonical your blog and help eliminate that problem.

Here are a few places to check out to get up to speed on this:

• Yoast.com: Canonical URL links
• Google Blog: About rel=”canonical”

Here is also a video of Google’s Matt Cutts explaining it a little better

I had a nice surprise when I opened my email yesterday. I was part of the first wave of emails to get the Google Buzz update. I quickly checked to see if there was anyone that I knew who had it but soon found out I was the only one so far.

After playing around with it for a bit I checked out what some of my favorite people were saying about it. Here is a short list of the best reviews and comments.

• Google Buzz: The Missing Features by ReadWriteWeb
• Google Buzz is not a Facebook killer by Jason Falls
• How to do everything in Google Buzz (including turning it off). http://bit.ly/bfQTQH by @sspenguin
• WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw by @alleyinsider

If you have any others to add just leave them in the comments below.

So here I am reading in my Google Reader account scanning through the few hundred updates that I have today since I last checked it and what do I see… Mashable is reporting that Google made a tiny little change to service.

I raced over to the Google Reader blog to check it out for myself. Before the change if you wanted to add a subscription to your Google Reader account it required that the page had an RSS feed, but now thanks to this cool update that is no longer the case.

I’ve been using this feature for a number of years to keep track of cool sites so I don’t have to keep checking my favorites all the time. It has gotten to the point that I rarely even check my bookmarks…and there is a TON of them.

With the sites I check on a regular basis I have them come to my reader account then if the content is good I’ll go visit the site and finish reading. It saves me lots of time of endlessly going from one site to another. Now they don’t even need to have a RSS feed for me to add them.

Now it’s time for me to run out and check out all my favorites and see what I can add to my list.

Today is a GREAT day! Thanks Google

[img credit: filiph]

This post is a little different that what I normally do, but I felt a strong urge to share something that resonates to my core.  Will Smith speaks about many of  the same beliefs that I hold myself.

Will Smith is one of the actors that I have always looked up to both professionally and as a person. I’ve been watching him on screen for the better part of two decades. His personality is such that it attracts you both on screen and off screen.

In this short video Will shares with us some of his basic beliefs that have enabled him to become such a great success. In life and in business if you have such strong beliefs there is no way that you will fail. In the end what you believe makes all the difference.

What do you believe? Share it with me below.

Many of you have noticed that I have not posted this month. I have received a few emails wondering what I have been doing. @socialmatching sent me a DM on twitter and wanted to know when I would be back from vacation.

I’ve actually been hard at work redesigning my blog for the new year.  I am making it easier to include my posts to your favorite social media sites. It will also be much easier to connect with me on your favorite social media sites.

I will also be adding some additional functionality to the site and including Guest posts from other bloggers that give back to our community.

2010 looks to be a great year as we head into the future. I look forward to hearing from everyone in the coming months.

Photo credit: Matt Hamm

I normally don’t make post about online scams or questionable internet marketing tactics but this one is happening on such a large scale that I felt the need to pass it on. Last week the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation release a really disturbing investigation about some of the aggressive sales tactics that a surprisingly large number of Fortune 500 companies are practicing.

Here’s what Sen Jay Rockefeller had to say:

“After six months, this Committee has found that the companies we are investigating have figured out very clever ways to manipulate consumers’ buying habits so they can make a quick buck.  American consumers have been complaining for years about these misleading practices and asking for answers – and rightly so,” said Chairman Rockefeller. “Millions of Americans are getting hit with these mystery charges every month – we have to do all we can to protect the hard working families relying on us to look out for their wallets and well-being.”

The Today Show did a segment on it which you can view here.

What you need to know about the report.

• Three Internet companies—Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty—exploit consumers’ expectations about online shopping to trick them into joining their membership clubs.
• Consumers often do not know these companies have their credit card numbers until they start seeing charges on their bank statements.
• Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty and their e-commerce partners have earned over $1.4 billion in revenue with their misleading tactics.
• There have been more than 30 million consumer enrollments in these clubs and several million people are unknowingly enrolled in these clubs at any one time.
• More than 450 e-commerce websites and retailers have partnered with Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty to employ aggressive sales tactics against their online customers splitting the revenue about 50-50.
• Eighty-eight companies have made more than $1 million by partnering with Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty, including Classmates.com, which made more than $70 million.
• Almost no one receives the “cash back award” that Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty offer to online consumers at the time of enrollment.

What do you think about this? Leave your comment below and pass it on.

This is a clip from the Web 2.0 Expo in NY of @chirsbrogan

A couple of questions that he posed at the end:

• how do we share?
• how do we develop relationships that yield?
• How do we collaborate? distribution

Spend the next 10 mins and listen to this video and gather the insight that you need to fix your social media strategy.

Is your marketing in order? With some of the biggest shopping days of the year just a few days away have you considered some of the other aspects to marketing online to have your best year ever this holiday season.

Black Friday: November 27, 2009  it’s the Friday after Thanksgiving this has been in years past the largest single shopping day of the year. If you have a retail location have you integrated your specials for that day in all your marketing and advertising?

Cyber Monday: November 30 2009, in the past few year the Monday after Thanksgiving has been the mega day for online shopping as people start to look for those special deal or those hard to find items that eluded them at the store. Send your emails early so people have them first thing in the morning.

Shipping Deadlines:Everyone wants their gifts delivered by Christmas so make sure you know the last day you can send your goods. Email reminders with incentives and if possible include free shipping (a big deal around the holidays)

• Wednesday, December 16, 2009 – USPS Parcel Post
• Thursday, December 17, 2009 – FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery
• Monday, December 21, 2009 – FedEx Express Saver, USPS First Class Mail, and USPS Priority Mail
• Tuesday, December 22 – FedEx 2Day
• Wednesday, December 23, 2009 – FedEx Overnight, UPS Next Day Air, and USPS Express Mail

The biggest thing to remember with customers is that they will always procrastinate. Keep them informed about shipping deadlines and remember in make adjustments on times to include your processing time. You will always have an influx right before the deadline be prepared and everyone will be happy. A happy customer knows what’s going on especially around the holidays.

Photo by: Premier Packaging