Almost at our 1 year anniversary…MarketingBlog.NET was recently featured on the site that started it all: BuyDomains.com, the birthplace of our site. Here is the featured story:

Business Success Story Showcase

MarketingBlog.net — One Success Builds Another

After blogging about business, Joshua Russak decided to start a site of his own. As a business blogger he was savvy enough to know he needed a domain name that was not only intuitive, but drove traffic to his site.

“I had trouble pinpointing a name I liked. That’s when I found BuyDomains.com. They featured premium choices I couldn’t find anywhere else.” — Joshua Russak, Founder

Russak was thrilled to find that MarketingBlog.net was available. He was delighted, but not surprised, when traffic immediately started to flow to his site.

Not only did traffic come to him, but so did another business idea. People were replying to his posts, asking whether he did Web design and online marketing. That was all the encouragement he needed to start First Time Online, a Web design and online marketing agency.

Today, a large number of leads come to First Time Online directly from MarketingBlog.net. Russak adds, “I wouldn’t be at this point today if I hadn’t taken the plunge with BuyDomains.com.”

Original can be found at: MarketingBlog.NET – Business Success Story Showcase

Posted under Blogs, Online Marketing

Facebook has officially launched their *NEW* Streamlined Inbox.  According to an article written a month ago on Mashable, Preview Your New Facebook Inbox, “the new feature isn’t live for everyone yet, and might not be for a few weeks.” Facebook provided the above preview image for what the updated Inbox will look like…and tonight, IT WENT LIVE!

My *NEW* Inbox Has Been Updated

For your own viewing pleasure, here’s what it looks like, for real. Click on the image below to get a closer look.

As you can see, the new filters appear to make it much easier to filter through read and unread messages as well as messages from people versus groups. Mashable did a good job of asking the question: What’s missing? “Being able to reply to messages from your own email address would still be nice, but don’t expect to see that feature added any time soon.” But that’s fair…we wouldn’t need to ever visit Facebook otherwise…and that wouldn’t be smart.

So What Does This All Mean?

For starters, it seems I’m one of the first to get the update (and blog about it) and secondly…I’m not sure, but it seems like Facebook is turning into a Facebook describes the upcoming changes as follows:

“The new Inbox design gives you more control over organizing messages and choosing which messages you receive. You’ll notice that there are now filters at the top of your Inbox to help you identify unread messages as well as to report any spam, or unwanted messages, you may receive …

To find specific messages within your Inbox, you can type a keyword or a friend’s name in the search box in the upper-left corner of the screen.”

How Will This Change The World?

Well, I’d formulate my own opinion, but another (random) blog did a pretty good job of saying it better a month ago: “The company had previously claimed that they aimed to make Facebook Inbox as usable as any dedicated email service so that users can in fact use it as their primary email client.” (Stuff.TechWhack.com)…and it’s quite evident that this is happening. Could this be the beginning of the end end of dedicated e-mail services as we know it? Will Google, Yahoo and MSN find a way to fight back? Stay tuned to find out what happens next…

Posted under Social Networks

On July 20, 1969, at 10:56 p.m. ET, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong stepped off the “Eagle” onto the surface of the moon and said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” The United States’s Apollo 11 mission was the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon.  An estimated 500 million people worldwide watched this event, “the landing drew the largest television audience for any live event up until that time”. (National Geographic)

40 years later we find ourselves honoring that day in one of the only ways we know how…via the internet.

Internet Honors Moon Landing

As a tribute to this momentus occasion 40 years ago…and as expected…the internet has paid its respects to the moon.

1. Google changes their logo: It looks as though Google waited until we actually landed on the Moon to update their logo, as they’ve updated their homepage with the following logo.

2. YouTube changed their logo: YouTube has changed their logo, which now includes “The Eagle” and a piece of the Moon.

3. Bing changed their background: Bing has changed their daily background image to feature a shot of the Moon.

4. Google Earth Adds Moon To Celebrate Apollo 11 Landing: Google on Monday released Moon in Google Earth, which allows users to explore lunar images and related lunar content.

5.  Video of First Moon Landing 1969: Located on YouTube and originally posted on February 2006, this classic only recently jumped to the top of the charts, gathering in over 2,585,748 views:

Success? In perspective…

I’d say it’s pretty sad that Michael Jackson’s death was able to shut down the internet, yet one of the most notable events in US history has merely caused a blip in cyberspace. I guess it really isn’t fair to judge…but I’d like to see what happens June 25th a year from now. Also, I’d like to note that Moon Landing Hoax videos are also getting a boost on YouTube. Equatable to staring at a blank wall for 6 minutes…you choose how to spend your day.

Thanks again for reading and HAPPY MOON LANDING DAY! Now to celebrate in the only way I know how – by mooning oncoming traffic from my window…

Posted under Online Marketing, Online Video, Viral Marketing

The  year was 1996…
AOL Instant Messenger wasn’t even invented yet…
YouTube, Facebook & Myspace didn’t exist…
E-mail was the only form of online communication…

…and some-how the video of a dancing baby went super-viral! 13 years later, and the 3D Dancing Baby is trying to make his return. With over 8.4 million views in just over a week, I’d say it’s working.

Ooga Chaka Goes Viral in 1996

The Dancing Baby aka “Baby Cha-Cha” refers to a 3D-rendered animation of a baby dancing to the song “Hooked On a Feeling”.  The video is one of the earliest examples of an Internet phenomenon (aka Viral Video). It became popular in 1996-1997 after circulating through email. Parodies were created shortly after, including a ‘drunken baby’, a ‘rasta baby’, ‘samurai baby’, and others, but none ever became as popular on the internet as the original file which still circulates. The dancing baby video and its variations appeared TV Shows,  Commercials, and music videos. David Hasselhoff did a music video cover of Hooked On a Feeling featuring the dancing baby. It too, quickly became an Internet phenomenon due to its surreal visuals, low production quality, and Hasselhoff’s celebrity status.

Evian Baby Goes Viral in 2009

An Evian commercial become a YouTube sensation…in a week! The video has racked up over 2.6 million views in a few days and is currently at 8.4+ million views and climbing! Obviously, they’re not the first ones to use the baby succesfully (ie E-Trade’s TV commercials), but we’re talking about dancing babies! Discovered a little over a week ago and garnering nearly 1,000 blog posts…this video has gone 100% Viral! For your viewing pleasure…

Posted under Online Video, Viral Marketing