Every day I check out the 100s of subscriptions in my RSS feed about marketing, PR, advertising, branding, social media, and a host of other topics of interest to small businesses that sell online. Most of what gets posted isn’t earth shattering but I reserve Fridays for the best reads of the week. So here you have it, the most valuable things I read in the business blogosphere this week:

• Lose the Discounts – Get Elastic suggests that discounts are a tax on the uninteresting. While they may be a useful tool in a down economy, the article is an interesting read. Are you relying to heavily on discounts?
• 5 Areas Businesses Overspend/Underspend
• Art Biz Blog’s thoughts on selling art in a bad economy.
• Very hand diagram explains which social media tools are best for different objectives
• 5 Easy Ways to Maximize Your Social Media Content
• Tips for Driving Targeted Twitter Traffic
• How often should I email my subscribers?
• 5 Web Design Concepts You Need to Know (even if you’re hiring a professional web designer)
• A Timeline for Getting Started on Twitter
• Product Packaging Tips for Flat Products (cards, paper, etc)