If you've read any of my latest riffs, you know I've joined the chorus of bloggers who are declaring email marketing's demise. Being an email marketing administrator by profession, I take no real joy in saying that. However, all signs point to the obvious.

Even the company that provides the email management software I use, Lyris, has added RSS feed technology as a compliment to their broadcast email program, Listmanager.

However, we are between the "now and the not yet" so far as a transition between these two technologies is concerned. It's not a black and white issue. For now, there is a grey area, and it's in that area that I believe we ought to place our focus.

We need to use the "push" technology that is email. Fraught with problems though it is, email is still the app of choice for most marketers.

But, to use push technology and not compliment it with the "pull" technology of RSS content syndication is to place oneself behind the technology curve. A curve that is shifting away from email and toward RSS.

If you're using email marketing currently, don't stop. Just add RSS feeds to it. Throw in a blog for good measure too!

If, as the "Cluetrain Gang" suggests, markets are conversations, then social software is the toolset needed to get businesses and consumers talking.

What is social software? The folks at SocialMedia.biz provide us laymen with an excellent definition.

Essentially, social software (or as they refer to it, social media) represents a new generation of tools that bring companies and users into a dynamic, ongoing conversation. They include blogs, digital stories, RSS feeds, wikis and social networks.

If some of those terms sound a bit like incantations from a Harry Potter novel, it's not so mystifying once you read what they have to say.

Markets are conversations. The internet has made it so. Therefore, smart businesses small or large need to get on board. To adapt a lyric from Cat Steven's Peace Train: "Everyone jump upon the Cluetrain. Come on now Cluetrain."

By the way, let me thank SocialMedia.biz for featuring our series on the future of blogging.

I was enjoying a case study on the Marketing Sherpa website and thought I'd pass these two tidbits along. . .

Comment on search engine marketing: "[M]ore qualified (and likely to convert) searchers tend to use more specific terms when searching." The more qualified the search term, the more qualified the lead.

Comment on user behavior: "[T]he more time a reader spends on the Internet in general, the less likely they are to convert to pay for content because they become convinced they can 'find it free somewhere else.'"

Regarding the latter comment, for two years I published a daily newsletter of radio show preparation materials for disc jockeys. (You know the "This Day in History", jokes, and trivia stuff that DJs use.) It was available in an annual subscription basis and delivered daily via email.

I found that very thing to be true. The more time DJs spent online themselves, the less likely they were to subscribe to my service. Conversely, the less time spent online, the more likely they were. One key is to target groups of people who spend little time online. Who are these people? According to Marketing Sherpa, CEOs comprise one such group.

Anyway, I hope you found those helpful. (BTW, the Marketing Sherpa article is only open through September 3. After that it becomes premium content.)

Nine year eBay veteran Sydney Johnston provides those of us contemplating starting an online business with some valuable insight in her post eBay Online Auctions or Your Own Website?

Sydney outlines three main reasons eBay auctions are much easier to do. If you don't have much experience with e-commerce, or a strong track record of online success, an eBay business would be a great way to start.

Got this from Marketing Sherpa. It was too good to pass up!

Question: How do you conduct an email campaign when your brand name is SPAM?

Answer: Very carefully.

Hormel, the company that makes the actual edible SPAM, is testing email marketing for a variety of their products. (Of course, if you've ever actually tried SPAM, you might not consider it edible. Ha!)

Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo continues his advance against email marketing by listing ten reasons RSS will eventually take the place of email as the preferred medium of syndication. Email marketers read 'em and weep! According to Chris, the death knell tolls.

I received an email newsletter from the Texas Travel Bureau. I clicked through to their website and had a small epiphany. . .This is one website that could really use a blog!

I contacted them with that suggestion. It will be interesting to see what they do with it, if anything. But, theirs is one site that would benefit by blogging! What do you think?

According to an article in Direct Marketing News, local business owners are using the net to connect with customers by establishing a website, yet rarely use it for marketing.

Small business owner, let me tell you something. . .just having a website is NOT ENOUGH! That's only one side of the coin. In case you're operating with the notion "If I build it, they will come," let me startle you awake with the truth. Unless you market that site, ain't nobody gonna know you exist!

Click to read more ...

I admit it! I'm a business blogging evangelist. I'm no Rick Bruner or Debbie Weil, who are mavens in the art of business blogs. I'm a salesman! A pitch man! I think if you have a business, then dang it, you ought to have a blog.

What's stopping you? Don't understand the nomenclature or the idiom? Read my posts! Don't know blog from smog? Here's a great definition. Afraid the technology is too advanced for you to tackle? Blogger.com makes it soooo easy! Can't write? I know someone who will coach you.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels this way. B.L. Ochman, president of Whatsnextonline.com, has written a nice article for MarketingProfs.com that talks about 10 businesses that have, so far, not jumped on the blogging bandwagon. I recommend you read it, then consider your own small business in light of what she has to say. Then, READ MY POSTS!

If you have questions, you can always contact me. I've helped a few folks see the light regarding the advantages of integrating a business blog into their corporate communications. Chances are I can help you. It will cost you nothing to find out. How's that for a bit of shameless self-promotion? See, I told you I was an evangelist!

I checked to see what pages of my two websites Google had in its directory. The way that's done is to go to www.google.com and type in "site: then your domain name." The results will indicate which pages of your site are showing up in Google.

So, I typed in "site: www.radiantmarketinggroup.com" which is my main website. It showed that 11 pages had been indexed. Next, I typed in "site: radiantmarketing.typepad.com" which is the URL (one of them anyway) for this site. 244 pages indexed there!

Let me ask you a question? Which site do you think will get more traffic? I can answer that. This one! Why? Google loves content, and blogs are all about content. So, let me reiterate. . .if you want to drive more traffic to your website, add a blog! That's all there is too it.