No surprise, recommendations from people they know tops the list, at 92%. The other 8%: "My brother-in-law told me to buy Brand __, and I listened to him, my bad."

Second most trusted? "Consumer opinions posted online", at 70%.

Nothing else is even close.

Editorial content, such as newspaper articles? Branded websites? Both come in at 58%

Opt-in emails? 50%

It goes South from there.

Get the idea?

One thing you should know is that penalties can be algorithmic or manual.

Algorithmic meaning Google's automatic ranking systems downgrade your site without any human intervention.

Manual meaning some Googler has actually looked at your site and assigned it a penalty - which can go so far as complete blacklisting of all of your domains.

Most of the time people are wrong when they think they've been subject to a manual penalty.

Now someone's written an extremely comprehensive article on what to do if you suspect that is the case.

This is a reference guide to pull out and use as a guide when you find yourself tearing your hair out over a site.

Google Manual Penalty Guide

Both professionally done, and user-created videos can be valuable.

Now a study has made clear which type of video to use when.

Professionally done videos are best for covering FEATURES.

Customer videos are best for talking about BENEFITS.

If you think about it, that make sense. People tend to trust what other customers say about what they got out of it. Much more than they are company trying to sell them.

On the other hand, who better knows what the features of a product or service are, than the company that provides it?

Another point on this is that user-created videos do not have to be polished. A handle held flip-cam is just fine. It's like a hand-written testimonial letter. It isn't the polish, it's the sincerity and believability.

When they venture into the world of advertising - whether out of necessity, or a desire to expand and get rich - they are often in for a surprise.

Yes, with good, smart advertising and high-quality delivery, you can get rich.

But, first of all, successful advertising is a challenge. It can take SEVERAL tries to find a formula that works for you. Meaning the combination of form of advertising, who it is addressed to, what you say or do to grab their notice in the first place, and what you say or do to get them to take action.

Action, meaning, to purchase (if an online store) or to contact you.

An enormous percentage of small businessmen have been frustrated in this, time and again. Often that is because of incompetent help from marketing companies and advertising outlets.

Just as often it is simply because no matter how smart you are, any new advertising effort is an experiment. There are no guarantees.

There's another shock in store for the new advertiser, when it DOES start to work: quality of leads. More on that tomorrow.

I'm not trying to discourage you. Quite the contrary. If you know what to expect, you won't be discouraged if you don't achieve overnight success. and the payoff when you DO get your advertising working, can be enormous.

This is the territory where you start buying gold-plated doorknobs and a rosy retirement.

What do they want to know?

Your customers and prospective customers, that is.

To figure this out can be as easy as putting yourself in their shoes.

Violations are common.

For example, I went online for a new dry cleaner's store hours, as I wanted to pick up some pants before work.

You can't find out.

It isn't on their website, and it isn't on their Google Places page. Their "Mission Statement" is featured, but not the hours of operation!

Now that shouldn't be very hard to figure out as a key piece of information, is it?

Put yourself in their shoes.

If you still can't figure it out, ask them!

These are typically printed on 8-1/2 x 11 paper, one or two sided, and one topic per sheet.

They are called sell sheets because they are a tool used in the selling process.

In other words, a sell sheet is not there to create a lead - as advertising - but to help a salesman sell an existing prospect. A salesman hands them to or mails them to a prospect.

They are never sent out in bulk. So you don't need to print them in large quantities.

It is important to have a variety of sell sheets on different topics. These can include, for example, an overview of the company, a summary of your products or services, individual sheets on each product or product line, case histories of different types of companies, etc. etc.

The salesman then picks and chooses the sell sheets that apply in a given situation, often putting them in a presentation folder, possibly along with a proposal or quote.

Because they are for someone who already has an interest, they are more informational than an ad typically is.

They are to inform and help someone make choices, and to fan the flame of interest and build confidence.

Now if you examine your website, you'll probably find that some pages of your website fit that description exactly. So likely you have material all ready to turn into sell sheets.

The flip side of that is to use your website instead of having printed sheets.

But most companies should also have printed sell sheets, no matter how good their website is. You can't mail or hand someone a website. This way, you aren't depending on someone actually going to your site - something they may not do.

But here's a startling number:

Newspaper advertising revenues for 2011 are HALF of what they were just 6 years ago (2005).

The vast bulk of that lost money has gone into online advertising.

If you leave out searches for restaurants, bars and clubs, who searches for local businesses?

The general answer: EVERYBODY.

There is essentially no difference between age groups for example. That's right, 65+ users are just as likely as 20-somethings to do local searches.

The ONLY significant variation is income and education levels. The higher the income, the higher the educational level, the more likely someone will do local searches. There's about a 50% increase from lowest to highest.

Here's the original article on this:

Local Businesses Other Than Restaurants Bars and Clubs

And the battle was on.

The wondrous thing is the continued creativity in inventing new ways to spam, but I have a point to make.

What is the opposite of spam?

In my humble opinion, it is quality. What is the essence of spam, after all, but that it is especially low quality advertising.

Now look at some of the greatest successes of the Internet era:

Google, a way to get more exactly the results from your searches that you were looking for.

Apple: Music players, phones, tablets with more capabilities, better looking and more user friendly than anyone would have imagined.

Facebook: A better way to keep up with your friends and acquaintances.

Twitter: A superior way to keep up with who and what in the universe you are interested in, in the most efficient way.

Look at that and tell me what direction do you think you should go with your Internet marketing?

Go for lots of low-quality links or a few really good ones?

Tons of mass-produced web content or well-written, well thought out and accurate articles that really answer people's questions?

A word to the wise is sufficient.

Did you know that Garamond, one of the most popular and effective type faces, traces its history to the 1540s?

This infographic traces some of the milestones:

A History of Western Typefaces

(For schooling on the basics of type terminology, see the Wikipedia article on typeface.)

U.S. Online Holiday Shopping Already Up 14 Percent

Now reports have Black Friday sales up more than 1/4 over last year:

Black Friday online sales jump 26 percent

This is good.

Their number 1, 2 and 3 choices?

An iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone.

You think maybe Apple has this marketing thing down?

Read the article here: U.S. Kids Looking Forward to “iHoliday” 2011

Not quite.

What we are seeing is similar to what we've seen with other media when new media came along. Their role becomes more limited.

Where it once was essential for ANY business to be in the Yellow Pages - and for any local consumer business to advertise - that is no longer the case.

Nevertheless, there are types of business where it remains not only highly important, but very profitable.

Here's a great article for guidance on when to consider Yellow Pages vital to your marketing. A couple sample factoids from Confessions Of A Yellow Pages User:

75% of YP advertisers are service businesses or installed product (think floor covering) businesses. The more service-heavy, the more valuable the directory.

Businesses that have large, infrequent sales (roofer, divorce attorney, windshield repair) are very likely to receive a big return.

Read it.

Here's the basic rules - with a classic violation (source: Google Goes After YouTube Domain Typo Squatter):

the three primary criterion are “identical or confusingly similar to a trademark” (check), “owner has no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name” (check), and “domain name has been registered and is being used in bad faith”

This by the way, is not handled in court, but through the procedures of ICANN, the international organization that controls domain name registrations.