I got excited about 6 months ago when I saw a job posting for Northwestern’s Medill school looking for educators with marketing 2.awesome skills.

Why does that matter for you?  Because 99.9% of you aren’t going to attend Northwestern to learn cutting edge content creation, content management, and content distribution skills, god has given us some great alternatives.  You don’t have to take the GMAT/GRE and then hope that you are deemed worthy of paying tuition at a school to get started.

Some exciting stuff is happening right now in the online education/tutorial world.  Do you think that online education/tutorials can become smart, like Pandora Radio?

With Google Reader, Adobe CS5, a Tuts+ $9/month subscription, and a $37.50/month Lynda.com subscription, these are the resources I use to learn innovative, creative, resonant, and measurement marketing skills:

Marketing Innovation

Marketers need to learn new computer languages in order to be cutting edge, have breakthrough ideas, etc.

Books like Get Back In The Box discuss the importance of understanding systems from the ground up.  For marketers to be innovative in today’s digital world, this means learning languages like html, css, JavaScript, etc.

Nettuts+, http://feeds.feedburner.com/nettuts

Digging Into WordPress, http://feeds2.feedburner.com/DiggingIntoWordpress, Buy the book!

CSS-Tricks, http://feeds2.feedburner.com/CssTricks

Lynda.com

Marketing Creativity

Marketers need to know to create designs, symbols, images, icons, videos, aesthetics etc.

Books like Buying In discuss the power of brands.

Psdtuts+, http://feeds.feedburner.com/psdtuts

Vectortuts+, http://feeds.feedburner.com/vectortuts

Aetuts+, http://feeds.feedburner.com/aetuts

Smashing Magazine, http://rss1.smashingmagazine.com/feed/

Six Revisions, http://feeds.feedburner.com/SixRevisions

Lynda.com, You have to check out the Deke McClelland Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator CS4 and CS5 tutorials!

Marketing Resonance

Marketers need to be in touch with the ethos, zeitgeist, culture, generation, collective, etc.

Books like How Brands Become Icons discuss the importance of understanding how marketing messages resonate with an audience.

I should probably be reading more consumer culture blogs, but murketing.com is the only one of these blogs I read.

Measurement

Marketers need to measure the success/failure of their efforts.

SEO Moz, http://feeds.feedburner.com/seomoz

SEO Book, http://www.seobook.com/feeds.shtml

Lynda.com

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

Every morning I use Google Reader to read the RSS feeds of wine blogs and marketing/developer/designer blogs.

My favorite wine blogs are those that talk about or demonstrate innovation and creativity in the wine world.  I’m less concerned about wine reviews, event promotions, and winery promotions (not to say that there isn’t innovation and creativity in these areas).

The 2010 Wine Blog Award that went to “Best Industry/Business Wine Blog” went to GoodGrape, and it was well-deserved.

GoodGrape also won the 2010 Wine Blog Award for “Best Wine Blog Graphics, Photography, & Presentation”.  I think Wine Library TV has a cooler design–there are some cool hover effects, the video quality is good, the videos have a cool animation intro.

Maybe one of YOU will buy a cool WordPress theme and some custom graphics and get a nominated for a 2011 Wine Blog Award winner next year…

I’d like to review some of the wine industry/business blogs and websites I’ve followed over the past couple of years.  I look forward to following some of the new wine blogs I discovered at the 2010 Wine Bloggers’ Conference!

Wine business/industry blogs I subscribe to

Steve Heimoff, http://steveheimoff.com/?feed=rss2

1WineDude, http://feeds.feedburner.com/1winedude

Caveman Wines, http://feeds.feedburner.com/CavemanWines

Dirty South Wine, http://feeds2.feedburner.com/typepad/dirtysouthwine/my_weblog

Dr. Vino, http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/GuSC

Fermentation, http://feeds.feedburner.com/FermentationTheDailyWineBlog

GoodGrape, http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoodGrapeAWineManifesto

MOVI, http://www.movi.cl/feed/

PinotBlogger, http://feeds.feedburner.com/Pinotblogger

Serious About Wine, http://feeds.feedburner.com/SeriousAboutWine

Winery Website Report, http://blog.winerywebsitereport.com/atom.xml

Think Wine Marketing, http://thinkwinemarketing.wordpress.com/feed/

Vin 65, http://feeds.feedburner.com/Vin65

Vinography, http://www.vinography.com/index.xml

Vintank, http://www.vintank.com/feed/

VinTuba, http://blog.vintuba.com/feed/

Wine Biz Radio, http://winebizradio.com/feed/

Wine Library TV, http://feeds.feedburner.com/WinelibraryTv

I think these are all men who write these blogs.  Which female wine industry/business bloggers do I need to follow?

Anybody know of a good Argentinian wine blog?

Good job to everyone using FeedBurner!

Wine business/industry blogs I would subscribe to if they generated full rss feeds or category-specific full feeds

Mutineer Magazine, (is there a way to subscribe to just the wine category?)

Palate Press, (is there a way to subscribe to just wine industry/business posts?)

Decanter News, http://feeds.feedburner.com/wwwdecantercomfeedsrssnewsxml (partial feed)

Wine Spectator News, http://www.winespectator.com/rss/rss?t=news (partial feed)

Wine Industry Insight, http://wineindustryinsight.com/?feed=rss (partial feed)

Wine Business, no RSS

Vineyard and Winery Management Magazine, no RSS

Wines and Vines, no RSS

Wines of Argentina, no RSS, come to Argentina with me in January 2011 through Sonoma State!

Other cool wine websites

In a previous post I talked about some cool wine website designs.

Maybe in my next post I’ll list the marketing, designer, and developer blogs I read every morning…

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

Can you tell the difference between these two (1, 2) wine bottle illustrations?

What’s that?  They both suck?  I know, but you have to start somewhere…

If you answered that one was created in Photoshop and that the other was created in Illustrator, then you are the big winner.

Which one do you think made the better wine bottle?  Unfortunately, you have to learn both Illustrator and Photoshop to do design work in the real world.

There are sweet tutorials for how to design 3D packaging at Psdtuts and at Vectortuts in Illustrator and Photoshop, but the best stuff costs $9 a month to get the premium tutorials.  I know, paying $9/month sucks, but you get the .psd and .ai source files, which is great.

With Photoshop and Illustrator art files you can do some sweet things with Adobe After effects too!

Adobe Photoshop Packaging Tutorials

How to use Photoshop to make a branded soda bottle.

The dodge and burn tools make it easy to do highlights and the brush tool makes it easy to draw flowers (on the cap).

Adobe Illustrator Packaging Tutorials

How to use Illustrator’s 3D Effects to make a branded milk bottle. With half a bottle outline you can rotate a bottle into 3D shape quickly.

How to make a branded 3D snack pack without using Illustrators 3D effects.  The envelope distort tool is cool, but it can be painful drawing highlights all over a 3D object.

Want to study Argentina’s Wine Industry in Argentina in January 2011 through Sonoma State?  Join the class facebook group.  A new WordPress 3.0/HTML5/CSS3 website will be up in a month or so at TheGlobalWineIndustry.com!

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

School’s out for Summer, which means its conference time for marketing academics.  I’m excited to go to the North American Wine Bloggers’ Conference for the third time June 24-27.  I’ll be on the lookout for how cool websites and multimedia content (Adobe CS5 content, HTML 5 websites, CSS 3 integration, jQuery, WordPress plugins) are being used by wine marketing/media/pr people.  I’ll write about the coolest things I see after the conference.

I hope that the 3rd Wine Bloggers’ Conference is as motivating as the first two, but it’s going to be tough for the Wine Bloggers’ Conference to compete with WordCamp.  Either way, this conference will be way more fun than marketing and wine academic conferences I’ve been to.

The Wine Bloggers’ Conference

The past two conferences have been very motivating and tons of fun.  The sessions at these conferences have been helpful and interesting.  The creative/innovative bloggers and media/marketing people are fun to talk to about interesting stuff.

In 2008 my takeaway was to start a WordPress blog and to get on Twitter.  Digging Into WordPress and spending time on the Twitter has helped me with that.

In 2009 my takeaway was to do more video.  iShowU HD screencasting software and a blip.tv pro account have helped me with that.

In 2010+ I want to learn Adobe CS5, HTML 5, CSS 3, jQuery, and WordPress 3.0.  I’ve got a Lynda.com and Tuts+ subscription and am ready to cover these topics in my Fall 2010 semester promotion management and marketing research classes!

Marketing Academic Conferences

The sessions at these conferences consist of presentations of correlation, ANOVA, and regression analyses.  People at these conferences talk about the politics of the marketing academic journal peer/editorial review process.

Wine Business and Marketing Education Conferences

I’ve enjoyed going to an academic wine conference and going to the Marketing Educators’ Conference, but these conferences have not motivated me to do what the Wine Bloggers’ Conference has motivated me to do.

WordCamp 2010 SF

I wonder what conference would be the most inspirational to go to in order to focus on learning Adobe CS5, HTML 5, CSS 3, jQuery, WordPress 3.0.  It was cool going to WordCamp SF 2010.

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

The educational video tutorial battle-royale is going to get very interesting.

After few years ago, after a bevy of academic education, I came to the realization that my content creation, content management, and content distribution skills were substandard…so I started to learn these skills.

Educational Video Tutorial Subscriptions

I bought some TotalTraining.com DVDs to learn Photoshop and Illustrator CS3, via Google.

I subscribed to Lynda.com’s video tutorials to learn Photoshop and Illustrator CS4, and more, via Six Revisions.

Now, CS5 is out, and ThinkVitamin.com is supposed to go live tomorrow.

These educational subscription-based services are the future of design/development/learn-how-to-do-cool-marketing-stuff education.

When people look at time and money it takes to travel to and from class, sit through an entire semester, and pay tuition, the costs of these memberships look nice.  Instant access to expert in their field, or an entire semester with someone that RateMyProfessor.com has been unkind to?  Just watch this video if you still haven’t made up your mind.  This ad is way cooler than most education ads.

I’m using Lynda.com in my Promotion Management and Marketing Research classes next Fall for the first time, and I can’t wait to see what students are able to accomplish in a semester when they apply what they learn in Lynda.com tutorials to their WordPress and Tumblr websites.

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

My first ebook is here!  Marketing Research with Tumblr for Fall 2010 will be available within a couple of weeks.

I’ve spent the last few years working on my Marketing 2.Awesome content creation, content management, and content distribution skills.

If present Dave could go back in time and give 2008 Dave a 50 page ebook telling 2008 Dave what to focus on in order to be able to learn marketing research skills with Tumblr, he would give 2008 Dave Marketing Research with Tumblr.

This book is free until August 15th, and then will be on sale for $20.10.

If you have feedback please leave a comment on the ebook download page, the Marketing Research Fall 2010 semester page, on this post, email me, or social network me.  I’ll do my best to make the changes by August 15th and to acknowledge your help in the revised ebook.

Screencast reference: Promotion Management with WordPress Week 1

Free Marketing Research with Tumblr ebook Download!

Week 1: Tumblr and Google Apps

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

My first ebook is here!  Marketing Research with Tumblr for Fall 2010 will be available within a couple of weeks.

I’ve spent the last few years working on my Marketing 2.Awesome content creation, content management, and content distribution skills.

If present Dave could go back in time and give 2008 Dave a 50 page ebook telling 2008 Dave what to focus on in order to be able to promote something with WordPress, he would give 2008 Dave Promotion Management with WordPress.

This book is free until August 15th, and then will be on sale for $20.10.

If you have feedback please leave a comment on the ebook download page, the Promotion Management Fall 2010 semester page, on this post, email me, or social network me.  I’ll do my best to make the changes by August 15th and to acknowledge your help in the ebook.

Free Promotion Management with WordPress ebook Download!

Week 1: How to buy a domain name, buy website hosting, and install WordPress.

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

Whether you started a WordPress or tumblr website this semester you should check out Google Chrome if you haven’t already.  Just like the iPhone apps make the iPhone so popular, there are cool Chrome extensions that enhance its functionality.  You can also tell how popular the extensions are based on the number of downloads for each extension.

Here is a post about Chrome extensions that made me want to finally add Chrome extensions and start using Chrome more.

While there, I found some plugins that might help you enhance your site for Search Engine Optimization

Google Chrome Extensions for Search Engine Optimization

In my screencast I demonstrate how to use the SEO Site Tools plugin to look at your site.  Can you get green check marks in the “suggestions” section of the extension?  This extension makes me question whether or not I should be using Intense Debate for comments and it makes me realize I should pay closer attention to my titles and slugs…maybe because Intense Debate is JavaScript-based I’m worrying about this for nothing.  I couldn’t find a conclusive answer on the blogs.

Here are some of the Chrome extensions I found to be the most helpful for SEO purposes, all with over 1,000 downloads already:

Chrome SEO

SEO Site Tools

SEO Status Pagerank/Alexa Toolbar

SEO SERP

iPageRank | SEO Tools for Chrome

PageRank

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

In my previous post I obviously failed at setting up a Google Analytics Campaign.  But, failing is good (at least according to Art & Copy), so here is how I’ve used the Google Analyticator and Pretty Link plugins to get a better idea of my Google Goals traffic.

Google Analytics Campaigns, Goals, and Event Tracking

You should check your Google Webmaster “messages” (in the upper left corner) and see if you have a USD$100 promo code.  Link your AdWords and Analytics accounts, and you can see your AdWords traffic results in Google Analytics.  This will start to give you an idea about how AdWords and Campaigns work in a similar manner.

Google campaigns let you parse out the traffic that comes to your site by campaign source, medium, term, content, and name (Google Analytics Tracking Basics), kind of like how you can determine which AdWords keywords are bringing traffic to your site.

In my previous post I was obviously a little confused about Google Analytics campaigns.  To get Google Analytics campaigns running you need to add some code to your Google Analytics JavaScript (Google Analytics Tracking Code).  In addition to campaigns, there are lots of tracking code customizations that can be made (Google Analytics Tracking Code API).

In my previous post I applied Google campaign code incorrectly.  My goals was to asses the traffic I was generating towards Two Five Media (not a campaign directed towards my website).

So, in order to get a better understanding of my goal of directing traffic to Two Five Media I used the PrettyLink plugin to created 301 redirects for links in my sidebar, rss feed, and blog post.  Now I should be able to get a better idea about where the traffic to Two Five Media and all of my other sidebar goals are coming from.

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.

Nobody wants to sit through a long research presentation or to read through a bunch of PowerPoint slides.

Can you present your marketing research results in a short and entertaining YouTube video?

Screencasting/Screen Capture Video

There are a lot of cool new tools to do screencasting with.  While you can’t download screencasting software onto school computers, there is screencasting software like Screenr (video) that is entirely web-based.  Check out some of the alternatives to Screenr to see if you can find a better web-based screen capture option.

I don’t know if Screenr lets you save your video files to your computer, so you might have to use KeepVid (or an alternative) to download your video from YouTube once you’ve uploaded it.

These screencasting tools, along with iMovie, allow you to easily make a short video that can describe a Google Website Optimizer experiment, a Google Analytics Goal/Campaign, survey results, etc. in an entertaining manner.

If you don’t want your voice in the video then you can add a different audio track.  With iMovie you can do lots of cool things by adding titles, transitions, splitting clips, special effects, animating images, etc.

There are also lots of examples of experimental research results presented with video on YouTube.

Experiment Videos on YouTube

Here is a nice PG version of an experiment being presented on YouTube.  If you search YouTube for “experiment” and then go to “Search Options”–>”Search By: View Count” you can find some not-so-PG stuff that is more entertaining.

I look forward to sharing your videos in our last class.  Please keep your videos PG.

I learn marketing skills by subscribing to Lynda.com (free 1 day pass), I stay current with developers and designers by subscribing to Tuts+, and I recommend reading Digging Into WordPress.

Want to start a website? I buy domain names at GoDaddy.com, I host my WordPress websites at MediaTemple.net, and I like working with TwoFiveMedia.