How do you compete in an industry controlled by just three companies? One start-up decided to find out for itself.

With much of the business world abuzz about content marketing, smart marketers are taking stock of opportunities for their clients to use the power of story to convey a message and build stronger brands. Conspicuously absent from most content strategies, however, is the granddaddy of all content marketing: writing a book.

Jetpack's cool icon feature creates, adds & shares a mobile app like icon & link for your blog on you & your customers smartphones for free. Picture includes mobile icons for Curagami (http://www.Curagami.com thr blue origami bid) and Scenttrail (http://www.scenttrail.com the wander path ST) our blogs. 

For months, Pinterest has been rumored to be readying a "Buy" button that could provide the blockbuster advertising and e-commerce business the six-year-old online scrapbooking service has long been expected to unveil. Today, a top Pinterest executive revealed more about the possible plans for the first time. Tim Kendall, Pinterest's head [...]

Marty Note: Email Matters
Your email list is something you own. You've earned the right to NOT pay Google or anyone else when you communicate with your email list. The value of the list is HUGE.

We saw a monetary value of $100 a subscriber recently and there are times when you email list can be worth many multiples of that such as:

* When your organic rankings take a huge hit thanks to an algorithm change.
* During peak sales times.

* To create sustainable online community.
* To increase sales.

* To bolster SEO and then increase sales.

Here is a great and simple list for how to increase the size of your email list:

1. Subscribe Button

2.  Ask Your Readers

3.  Give Incentives

4. Speed Up Website

5. Offer A Free Course

6. Squeeze Page

7. Guest Blogging

8. Implement Hello Bar

9. Video Call To Action

10. Scroll Box

11. Feature Box

12. Sumo Me

13.  QR Code

14. Trade Shows

There has been a fundamental shift in marketing to young people. Next Generation Consumers no longer put brands on a pedestal or seek to conform to the aspirational lifestyles brands promote. Instead, they seek out authenticity that supports their ‘brand of me’.

How do you improve an already effective marketing program? Online testing lets marketers optimize their current efforts through small changes or radical redesigns. The key is to design tests that provide customer insights, not just metric lifts. As part of the Email Summit 2015 Live Test, VolunteerMatch used a three-part series of experiments to learn how to better engage its B2B audience for its SaaS product. Learn how it increased clickthrough in emails and on a landing page while still gaining ...

Why Content Curtation Rocks SEO
The slide deck from @Scoop.it about how content curation impacts SEO is an excellent SEO & content curation primer (embedded in the post), but let’s do a deeper dive to understand how content curation ROCKS SEO and every site's Uber-Goal of creating sustainable online community.

This Curagami post creates an interesting comparison between Oprah and Amazon. One knows how to create online community one doesn't. Both have great tips to share.

Taking advantage of social media's ability to reach broader audiences is a staple in inbound strategies.

A look at the rise of curated newsletters and which of the best newsletters to subscribe to for finding awesome content to share.

The web + mobile + social means we are all about to be game developers. Those environments are so GAME FRIENDLY and game content so engaging in or out of the organization becoming game developers is in all our futures.

The day a big company understands social media marketing it may be time to buy water and canned goods and get in the basement. The end of days is near.

As this post shares, doesn't look like the end of days is near based on how TONE DEAF Nissan was to a cool social marketing idea, and idea that would have sold $240,000 in cars and costs...well NOTING.

We may NEVER need water and canned goods...sadly.

The biggest theme of 2015 NRF focused was retailers' us of digital technology that bridges the online and offline parts of the digital commerce experience.

This post shares 3 simple web metrics to help find the 20% of stuff controlling 80% of your online business because online only Pareto can hear you scream.

Use these three simple metrics to find your long tail:

Rank
% of Total
Running Total

Tony Randall By now most internet marketers are familiar with the phrase "Content is King" but this really is nothing new. It always has been king and it always will be.

Content Curators Added To Curagami
Content curation may be the ultimate team sport. Together we are smarter than alone. As we changed our startup http://www.Curagami.com look and feel today we added a place to share 3 favorite content curators each month.

December's Must Follow Content Curators:

@Cendrine Marrouat - https://www.cendrinemedia.com

@Neil Ferree

@Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com

Significant curators across every social net these special marketers sift a mountain of content daily so we their lucky followers are smarter, wiser and better informed. If you are NOT following Cendrine, Neil and Brian on Scoop.it, Twitter, Gplus and wherever else they contribute (blogs and company sites) you are missing the easiest way to learn content curation and Internet marketing we know.

Happy holidays to three of our favorite content curators, Scoopiteers and people. We will share 3 curators a month and won't have a problem filling up our 2015 content curation dance card.