Bloggers Digest - 5/2/08

It's the end of the week, but the beginning of another month. And you know what that means - another free ecommerce webinar is coming up. This month we're honored to have search marketing expert and Director of Marketing for the Rimm-Kaufman Group, Ryan Gibson sharing his wisdom with us. Save the date - May 15th, 9am PST, 12pm EST. Discover the Key to PPC for Online Retailers.

Email marketers will also want to join Chad White from the Email Experience Council, Compendium Blogware and Habeas for a free webinar on blogging and email. Learn to take advantage of the "cost-effective combination of blogging, email and search to help marketing, operations and sales teams to acquire, engage, transact with and retain customers."

Alright, link time!

• Jim Bunzol shares an example of a cart recovery email (or remarketing, as he calls it) from Circuit City. Nice find. What I like about CC's approach is it's very customer service oriented. These are not the exact words, but the angle is: "We noticed you were interested in some things (added to cart) and then you took off. No problem, we're saving them in your cart for you if you'd like to come back and buy them later. If you need to consult the experts, here's a link to our discussion forums where you can get help." Rather than, "Hey you, get back here and buy now! We've been watching you and know where you're inbox is!"

• It should come as no surprise that men and women write customer reviews differently because they care about different things. Holly Buchanan explains how to pick up girls / guys with customer reviews, and incorporate them into your product descriptions for better conversions.

• Wanna know how you can keep on top of blog and forum references to your company name, other than Google Alerts? Jeremiah Owyang describes 3 options.

• Jeremiah Owyang gives us a reality check - people trust bloggers far less than friends and acquaintances when it comes to product reviews. But don't pull the plug on your blogger outreach, Google trusts bloggers far more than offline conversations so long as they're not selling text links.

• Thinking of buying text links? Brian Chappell has 9 good reasons why you shouldn't buy text links.

• Business blogging: Company domain or separate domain? Gab Goldenberg lays out the pros and cons of each strategy - with SEO and branding implications. Good read for anyone considering a business blog or in the position of advising a client on which route to take.

• Finally, an SEO Cheat Sheet for all you web developers out there. Courtesy of SEOmoz.