Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, and in *Plain English*. Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

It’s been said time and time again. Blog subscribers all over the ‘Net, whether by email or RSS, rant about this issue consistently, myself included.

And I make no apologies for it.

I am here now, one more (last?) time, as both a blogger and blog subscriber, to speak to ALL my blogging colleagues (i.e. Everyone with a blog), to say…..

Respond to Comments or Risk LOSING Subscribers!

Allow me to be brutally honest for a moment. You are NOT too busy. You’re really not. Seriously. I’m not kidding. Ask anyone.
For those that wish to dispute it, I’ll make it real easy for you. Multiple choice even…

1. You’re lying

2. You’re lazy

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, and in *Plain English*. Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

Please don’t misunderstand. I’m all for fighting comment spam as much if not more then the next blogger. If you desire the use of a captcha or two, go for it. I fully support you.

For cryin out loud though people, use one that is CLEARLY VISIBLE.

I read and comment on a LOT of Blogs in the sphere and the pure disdain I have for those teeny tiny little question/answer captcha’s placed in amongst the other fields (name email URL) cannot be measured with todays technology.

A real PITA if there ever was one. Btw, for those that don’t realize, that’s PAIN IN THE ASS. Who’s brainchild were these?

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, and in *Plain English*. Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

A short post today but with a bullet! In regards to splitting categories when necessary.

Perhaps it was laziness, I dunno. When I first started categorizing this blog I had “Traffic & Promotion” as one category.

Well, they DO go hand-in-hand don’t they?

Yes & No.

Here’s how I see it - all promotion is meant to bring traffic. But, not all traffic is a result of promotion…..at least not “direct promotion“.

Do you see it? Think about it.

The more I market and blog, the more I see differences, sometimes vast differences in traffic strategies and promotion techniques.

This also mean that it makes good “user-friendly” sense, to separate the two for readers. Let us never forget, without readers, we’re just talking to ourselves ;).

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, and in *Plain English*. Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

Hello all!

First, sincerest apologies for not posting in about a week. I’m still hard at work on that blog project I’ve spoken about. I’m hoping to be able to announce/launch it next week…it’s lookin’ good so far

Now then, a brand new feature here starting this coming Monday, the 30th. At the beginning/end of each month I will be recapping each and every post from the previous month (or at least the best ones) with a link and small caption.

This is a little different then most of the other “link round-up” posts I see, as this is all internal. A good bunch of the ones I see are all external, wherein bloggers give the love and link-out to the posts they come across on other blogs. Also an excellent practice, which I’ll get more into another time.

Why is this something all Bloggers should consider? Just a few ideas (in no real particular order)…..

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, as elementary as possible because we know you’re new. Got a wish list? Skribit! Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

OK here’s the skinny. I’m busy busy busy workin’ on something really awesome for everyone, but I figured I’d take a little break here at Midnight to bring you a pretty cool Entrecard contest.

Btw, if you’re one of the few still not using Entrecard on your blog(s), you should be. Not only does it bring you pretty decent traffic, but it’s an AWESOME promotion and networking tool

Anyhoo, on with the festivities! The General Marketing Blog has got himself a new domain name and he’s pretty stoked about it. To that end he’s giving away 10,000 Entrecard credits to one lucky winner! TEN THOUSAND.

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, as elementary as possible because we know you’re new. Got a wish list? Skribit! Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

That’s right folks, the original (nada there yet) is coming back around! This was the first blog I ever created and was supposed to be the first blog back up, once I took on new and final focus.

However, as I’m sure you can tell, this domain name is far better suited for my niche within a niche I have created here. DennisEdell.com, just wouldn’t do.

Since D.S.W.M. (this blog) and the one or two soon to follow are dedicated to strictly business, I have decided to dedicate DE.com to the “lighter side of business” so to speak…

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, as elementary as possible because we know you’re new. Got a wish list? Skribit! Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

In my ever vigilant effort to make a clean looking AND user-friendly Blog for everyone here, I am trying one more plugin to try and get the combination of post snippets on-site, while having full feeds go through the feed.

if you recall, I first attempted the Full Feed plugin and it was a disaster. I then thought it would just be best to change the look of the Blog a bit, and publish full posts.

Neither you nor I liked that very much.

When suddenly…..on one of my blog commenting escapades I ran across Colin King, a true geek :-). A great guy, a real swell fella; seriously.

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, as elementary as possible because we know you’re new. Got a wish list? Skribit! Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

Advertising your website is a matter of dollars and sense; as in, where does it make the most sense to put your dollars?

A recent survey conducted by Marketingsherpa.com (as reported in the Marketing Report newsletter) showed that search engine optimization and in-house generated email lists rank neck-and-neck as the top performers when it comes to return on investment.

A few highlights:

• Paid search ads are favored by 49% of marketers as the highest ROI.
• In-house email lists received the top rating for ROI by 47% of those surveyed.
• 34% of marketers plan to increase their spending on search engines by 5% or more.

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, as elementary as possible because we know you’re new. Got a wish list? Skribit! Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

I have spent a lot of time talking to a great many of you since I declared that I was tightening focus and splitting into a network of “elementary” Blogs.

My friend Katy Castro recently wrote about transitioning a niche blog, and one of the main points was Communicating With Readers, and that’s exactly what I’ve been doing.

Through comments, emails, messenger chat, and even phone conversations, the majority percentage of you really did not like the idea.

You were afraid I may ignore the other aspects, not cover them as thoroughly as I should or once did, etc etc. I can assure you this would not have been the case.

Welcome to D.S.W.M., where Direct Sales meets Online Marketing. We cover it all, as elementary as possible because we know you’re new. Got a wish list? Skribit! Like what you see? We offer Full Feed updates.

Read to the end for a big link love fest for those who participate.

First and foremost, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! to all Moms and expectant Moms out there, did you call yours? :-). This post is for all Bloggers far and wide that think it’s “just not happening”…it WILL.

Since I make it a point to tell everything that happens on or to this Blog, here goes.

Read to the end for a big link love fest for those who participate…

Those of you that have been with me since the beginning, know that this blog hasn’t been up all that long. I started 8 months ago in October 2007, although it doesn’t look it.