Posted by Adam T. Sutton in Internet Marketing Strategy	September 17, 2007

Avoid foolish marketing and bad PR

By Adam T. Sutton, Managing Director, Mequoda Group, LLC

Today's post is a little different. Rather than discussing a list of online marketing tips you should consider attempting, today we are featuring two lists of things you should avoid.

The first list describes 14 things to avoid when soliciting coverage from a blog. The list comes from Lee Odden's Online Marketing Blog and it helps distinguish the differences between soliciting stories from print journalists and from bloggers.

Several of the tips are valid when requesting coverage from any writer. They include "do not pitch irrelevant stories" and avoid using impersonal salutations like "Dear NameoftheBlog." Other tips, though, are more specific to blogs, such as:

• Don't embargo an announcement for more than few days...There is no editorial calendar or story board in place with 99 percent of blogs. Give them something they can act on now.

• Don't send a regular pitch with a press release to a blogger

• Don't use traditional media relations tactics with bloggers, but rather make an effort to connect with them individually

Visit Odden's blog to see the rest of the tips here. Take a look. Maybe they can help you generate more free press.

Today's second list is a counter weight to the Internet hype surrounding Second Life, Twitter and online advertising. Advertising Age's Mark Simon wrote this article, titled "Ditch the Lunatic Web Content Crazes," that is part irritated diatribe and part valid observation and advice.

Simon lists 10 things marketers should ignore online, including:

• Anything having to do with virtual reality

"It's no secret that marketers are having many second thoughts about Second Life, which just a few months ago was the preferred virtual vehicle for many major brands to show their wares," Simon said.

• Anything having to do with the phony-recommendation industry

Chief marketing officers "who dabble in pay per post or its deranged cousin, 'astroturfing' (phony grass-roots marketing using blogs) are playing with fire and shouldn't be surprised when the brands they're supposed to shepherding get toasted once the ruse is inevitably discovered," said Simon.

• Audio relevant video pre-roll ads

"One of the main reasons why repurposing standard 30-second TV spots into video pre-roll ads is so ridiculous is that most users turn down or mute the sound to save their fellow workers exposure to the audio," said Simon.

• Twitter and its microblogging ilk

"What could be more annoying and less useful than a site where thousands of people are given 140 characters to shout out about what they're doing at every moment of the day?" Simon said.

Simon's annoyance with these online phenomena is pretty funny, and he makes excellent arguments against them. Check out the rest of his article and see if you should reconsider branching into the hottest online marketing fad. Viewing the article requires a free registration, though.