Happy 11/11/11 everyone! And it’s Friday, woot!

Here’s the best stuff I saw around the business blogosphere this week:

• Web Design Showcase: Designing Above the Fold – nice set of examples of professional web designs that keep important information above the fold.
• Holiday Email 12 Point Checklist – Check Get Elastic’s list of dos and don’ts before you plan your holiday season email campaigns.
• 8 Businesses on Tumblr – Nice showcase of ways businesses are using Tumblr
• UPS, Fedex and UPS – Great detailed comparison chart including pricing, that helps you choose between the top 3 delivery services.
• 5 Ways Small Business Owners Can use Online Video
  

Happy Friday! I’m sure you’ve all got awesome Halloween’ish plans for the weekend. Before you get gussied up and OD on candy, check out my suggested reads from around the web this week:

• How to Protect Your Trademark Online
• 7 Steps to Successful Subject Lines
• Advice from Practical Ecommerce on Writing Excellent Subject Lines
• 10 Ways to Never Run Out of Blog Ideas Again
• 5 Simple Ways to Promote Multi-Item Orders
• Entrepreneur Describes Selling Her Business (must read if you’re thinking of selling your biz one day)

Just got back from an awesome vacation in Australia! I’m now super busy catching up on stuff, but more blog jamz will be forthcoming. In the meantime, check out my suggested reads from around the web this week.

• Short Term ROI vs Customer Lifetime Value – One of my fave ecomm bloggers touches on one of my favorite hot topics
• Solving the Free Shipping Dilemma – ideas to make free shipping work for you
• How to Search a Trademark
• Private Vs Personal in Your Blog and Business – an important distinction people often get confused. Create Hype does a great job of explaining the difference!
• Great Idea to Reframe Discounts – take a page out of Saks playbook to make your discount promotions sound sexier.
• 10 Bizarre Things That Influence Customers Online
• The 5-Step Process that Solves Three Painful Writing Problems – Great step-by-step approach to help you write your blog posts, product descriptions and more.

Hooray it’s Friday! Don’t forget we’ve just opened up I Shop Indie for holiday season members, get more details here. Now on with the links…

• Hard Thoughts About SEO & Link Bait
• How To Ensure That Your Content Will Go Viral
• 9 Pointers for Selling Common Products
• The Value of an Email Subscriber
• You’ve Got to Spend Big Money to Make Big Money
• 23 Reasons Your Blog Isn’t Making Any Money (And What To Do About It!)
• How to Conduct Competitive Research
• Fringe Benefits: Why startups mustn’t appeal to the masses
• Hidden Friction: The 7 Silent Killers of Conversion
• 50 search marketing tips for beginners
• Understanding Basic A/B Testing

Below are my favorite reads of the week from around the marketing and small business blogosphere:

• 4 Free Photoshop Alternatives for Image Editing
• Copyblogger Echoes My Sentiments on “Digital Sharecropping” (A.K.A. why you shouldn’t build your business on Etsy)
• How to Keep Your Promos From being Tossed Out
• Mind Control Marketing – How to Quit Begging and Make People Want to Help You
• What I Learned From Selling Wholesale
• Adding Punch to Product Images

Happy Friday, all! Here are a few reads to kick off your weekend:

• Should Your Order Form Include a Coupon Code Field?
• 3 Tips To Reduce Email Unsubscribes
• How to Buy Booth Space and Exhibit Like a Pro at a Festival or Fair
• Are You Wasting Your Welcome Emails?

Check out the links below, they’re the best business articles I read this week from other blogs:

• How to Write a Design Brief – want to hire a graphic designer to work on your website, logo, marketing materials, product packaging, etc. This is a great article on how to write a proper design brief for your designer.
• Content Optimization Tutorial: How to SEO your Content for Rankings
• Tips for Selecting a Business Name – Starting a new biz? Here are some ideas for picking a name.
• Need Funding for Your Biz? Look online – A review/round up of sites where small businesses can go for funding.
• 25 Killer Ecommerce Link Building Tips – Getting links is an important part of SEO, here are tips on how to get some.
• Is the Sales Rep as Good as Their Rolodex? Great list of questions to ask a sales rep before you start working with one.
• 12 Video Sharing Triggers – Want to create a video that goes viral? Check out this list of things that makes people share videos.

They’re calling for a heat index of 120 today. Yuck! Sounds like the perfect weather for staying indoors with the AC and catching up on some biz reads. Here are my suggestions:

• Checklist: 9 Ways to Build Trust With Your Online Checkout
• How to Create a Useful Logo
• 15 Free Things Every Ecommerce Website Should Do After Launching
• Are You Spamming? (The Answer Might Surprise You)
• From Zero to Something: Link Building for New Websites (incl. 15 Easy Link Opportunities)
• The Art of Collaboration: 3 Important Considerations Before You Create With Another Designer

This week’s round up is heavy on the SEO info, but there were so many great SEO articles this week. Have a terrific 3 day weekend, all! See you next week

• 5 Tips for SEO Copywriting
• 10 New Google Analytics 5 Features
• 3 Slip Ups to Avoid When Pitching Magazine Editors
• How to Check Your Website’s SEO Health
• 20 Point SEO Account Takeover Checklist – written for SEO agencies that are taking on new clients, but you can use the same strategies to start doing your own SEO
• 5 Linking Mistake You Didn’t Know You Were Making
• 30 New Google Ranking Factors You May Over or Under Estimate
• Top SEO Mistakes to Avoid

Happy Friday! Below are my recommended reads this week from around the web:

• Who Keeps Spreading Silly SEO Stupidity, and Why? – The internet is full of info on SEO, but not all of it is accurate. Find out how and why false information spreads.
• The Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research – a very nice comprehensive how-to from Viper Chill
• 34 Ecommerce Themes for WordPress – I will keep reminding you that you should get your own website (if you haven’t yet). This article details 34 different themes that you could use to build your own online shop using WordPress.
• How to Get Lots of Hits on Your Video to Promote Your Business Video – I loved this article, I’m actually going to use their idea!
• New Facebook Reports: Only 3% To 7.5% Of Fans See Your Page’s Posts and One Facebook fan = 20 web visits
• 5 Suggestions For Naming Your Business
• Why I Ditched the Press Release and What to Do Instead

Lastly, I wanted to recommend checking out Kyle-Beth Hilfer’s legal blog. She covers legal issues that pertain to small business and creative professionals. Add it to your feed reader for great insights on this important topic.