If you’re reading this today, and you’re in the United States… what the heck! It’s Thanksgiving–time to take a break from work, count your blessings (that you’re still in business is a big one!), and gobble traditional foods of your choice. (Or non-traditional eats, like the toast, popcorn, and jelly beans that Charlie Brown prepared for friends.)

In turn, I’ll resist the urge to talk about SMS, email, mobile coupons, etc. (Those of you not U.S.-based, or not into celebrating Turkey Day, can click on those links if you feel like it.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

mobileStorm was among the first to proclaim that Google, the startup-turned-worldchanger whose motto is “Do No Evil,” was headed for a fall. (If you don’t remember, check out this episode of Outside The Inbox, part of a series of humorous videos about news and issues regarding digital communications.)

Word on the street–or rather, in the Valley–is that the search king isn’t living up to its motto. Google has been laying off staff and will possibly shed 10,000 jobs in all. Since most of these are contract employees rather than full-timers, the company hasn’t had to comply with federal law and report the firings publicly. These contract workers benefit Google in another way, by allowing the company to report lower employee numbers to the SEC, making it look good to investors by making it seem as if productivity per employee is more than it actually is.

What does this have to do with digital marketing? Well, Google’s woes are that of the whole online ad industry. Lower online ad sales means, to marketers, that your competitors are less likely to be using them–so why should you?

Meanwhile other digital message platforms, such as SMS and email, are growing in popularity among both marketers and consumers. Particularly when these kinds of messages offer coupons or other vouchers that encourage recipients to spend.

Mobile marketers have something to be thankful for, even if they’re not celebrating the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday this week: The great growth of mobile coupons, as predicted by Juniper Research.

The firm reports that by the year 2013, some 200 million subscribers worldwide will use coupons that are delivered and redeemed via mobile phones. North America and Western Europe will account for almost 20 percent of those voucher redeemers. Doing the math… that’s 40 million mobile consumers in those two regions who will be using mobile coupons!

And don’t worry about ads on the mobile Web, which is just now starting to become common with the proliferation of smart phones aimed at consumers, or other burgening technologies. SMS is not only now–it’s also the most common way for delivering mobile coupons to the consumer, according to Juniper.

“The mobile phone is the ultimate individual marketing device and mobile coupon pilots show greatly increased redemption rates–often double digit percentages,” says Howard Wilcox. author of the Juniper report.

As regular readers of this blog know, mobileStorm has long known how big mobile coupons will be. Get in the game before those 200 million mobile coupon users pass you by: Download a free recording of our webinar titled “Making Money With Mobile Coupons.”

The success of link building depends on who is doing it and how it is done.

First, you need to understand the purpose of link building. Many non-professionals don’t build links because they just don’t get the point. Some people may think that optimized links in their content can be unnatural or disturbing for readers. This might be true, but it depends on how you do it. The links will be a natural addition when they help readers to explore a subject further.

One should understand that he/she is giving additional value in the form of external resources when readers want to learn more. At the same time, links save time for readers who don’t want a lot of information on one page. Links also help other pages on your site, and external sites with worthy content, rank high and be found by real people. They help the Web to be more organized for us all. Links are vital for SEO (search engine optimization)–they help the promoted page to rank high for its keywords and to be found by those looking for it. Link building is essential to increase anyone’s web presence.

It’s not just about sending out templated emails and sometimes responding to the replies. Moreover, we all should understand that spam is evil. There are plenty of ways to gain natural links from related pages, without getting on people’s nerves.

Link building requires some technical skills (to insert the link codes, for example) as well as extraordinary search skills (to find strong link partners for automated or manual link submissions).

A good link builder is the one with a “good eye.” This person is able to see the link value of certain pages within the enormous pile of worldwide Web information. Ideally this person will have wide interests,  is versed in hundreds of subjects, and is capable of identifying a great link partner on-the-spot.

Link building requires a creative approach. While everyone knows the rules, only those with original moves and strategic vision can outrank others.

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