MarketingExperiments Blog: Research-driven optimization, testing, and marketing ideas

Are you all Microhoo’ed out yet? Here’s a shortlist of cool, helpful posts from the past week, covering a range of online marketing topics.

• Social media: Our colleague and B2B pro Brian Carroll shares his thoughts on how to generate leads with LinkedIn without alienating your network.
• Email: ClickZ reminds us that Christmas is just around the corner (sort of) and provides a “must-do now” e-commerce checklist to help you get ahead.
• SEO: Winning the Web provides a list of don’ts to keep you from landing in SEO purgatory.
• Copy: Karen Thackson at Marketing Words Copywriting explores how an effective call-to-action is more than just using call-to-action words.
• PPC: Search Engine Roundtable notices that more advertisers have been granted access to Google’s bid simulator tool in the past week.
• Design: A catalog of e-commerce buttons and iconography from Checkout Optimization to inspire and delight e-marketers.

Note: In August, we’ll be returning to our regular schedule with more frequent blog posts. Look for that starting next week, with upcoming posts covering PPC, lead generation, testing and analytics, new landing page critiques, and more …

Need a shortcut to your weekend marketing reading? Our favorite articles of the week will get you started on your review of online, search and social media marketing. These made it through our feeds and into the idea bin.

Stuck In A Rut? 20 Places to Find Entrepreneurial Inspiration — A roadmap of motivation for when you need a boost. Alyssa Gregory of SitePoint pulls from her list of favorite blogs, success stories and magazines for when your inner entrepreneur needs a shot in the arm.

Top 3 Google Gadgets to SEO Your iGoogle Home Page — Download the tools and gadgets that you’re probably already using to your iGoogle Home Page for quick, easy access. Search Engine Journal points you in the right direction — and I agree with Ann Smarty that the general lack of great iGoogle gadgets is surprising.

33 Ways to Use LinkedIn for Business — LinkedIn is much more than an online resume, and Web Worker Daily shares ways to use LinkedIn more effectively for your business. (The MarketingExperiments LinkedIn group has been growing steadily thanks to tips like these.)

Gmail Offers to Automatically Unsubscribe You from Mailing Lists — Gmail is offering an unsubscribe option for even authenticated mail from reputable senders; Life Hacker has the details.

Beware of Low Bids and Low Budgets When Setting Up Your Google AdWords Account — PPC Hero asks Google about keywords not showing up due to a low keyword bid.

If you’re looking for more PPC advice, join us for our PPC Live Optimization web clinic on July 29. Submit your campaign for review and the chance to win a seat on our Optimization Training Tour.