The Big Fat Marketing Blog

“Please come and see us?” I was asked by a vendor whose booth was tucked away in a black hole of the exhibit hall of the Internet Retailer Web Design Show, here at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress in Orlando.

The exhibit hall, actually, is hopping, and they do have it set up so you can check out the sessions by going through the exhibit hall. But this one vendor is kind of stuck away from all the action. I feel bad, and I should stop by and visit later instead of smiling and ignoring them. more

Just a heads-up, I’m going to tweet from the Internet Retailer Web Design & Usability Conference today and tomorrow. Out feed: http://twitter.com/mcmerchant. Will people care? Who knows.

What do you think about live tweets from tradeshows? Good, bad or ugly? Are 140 characters worth the keystrokes if there’s no line to an article, post or example?

When we were looking to “go Web 2.0″ with the Chief Marketer Network’s Websites back in 2008, the topic of article commenting came up. The team that was assembled had asked if there were any vendors who had a plug-in that would work with our site, or if we should look at some sort of a comment aggregation service to facilitate the process.

My advice then: Don’t go with Topix.com. It’s a cesspool for bottom-feeding Internet trolls who have nothing better to do but cowardly hide behind aliases and leave racist, homophobic, libelous, slanderous, tasteless, classless and downright rude comments on every article it attaches itself to. And apparently the publications that use Topix.com do not have the ability to remove those comments, no mater how much its reputation can be damaged.

Topix.com sunk to a new low this week, giving consumers to self-serve privilege to remove racist, homophobic, libelous, slanderous, tasteless, classless and downright rude comments left about them… for a $19.95 fee. That’s just as disgusting as the trolls who have helped spearhead the death of civility on the Internet. more

Hearst runs four daily newspapers in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and its Websites recently went through a redesign to get on the same platform and to look a little more uniform.

Now we all know people hate change. And the readers of the Greenwich Time weren’t happy about their new homepage.

They wanted their clock back. The Greenwich Clock had been a part of the site’s banner - and identity - even before newspapers went digital. more

A few years back, maybe even during the 2004 Presidential Election season, I opted in to receive e-mail messages from the Democratic Party. Now that I’m trying to opt out, the Democratic Party doesn’t want me to.

The latest e-mail I received from the party seemed like it was going to make it easy to unsubscribe if I just clicked a link. more

It’s been five days since the 7.7 earthquake left Port-au-Prince in ruins, and governments, individuals and corporations have pledged what they can to help with the relief efforts in Haiti.

Based on press releases, here’s a quick rundown of which corporations have pledged cash, services and people. Also, here’s who’s letting the public know they are giving without coming off like it’s a marketing campaign:

• Crocs: They are donating thousands of pairs of Crocs to Haiti, and they’re using its headquarters as a drop-off point for those who want to donate supplies. But the headline of its press release makes it look like corporate giving is a competition, and that Crocs is in first place. Boasting to the world about being “a leading” anything in a press release is probably also not a good idea.



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