It’s been my honor to follow Andy’s and Garrett’s lead for the last year. These were incredibly large shoes to fill, and moderating this blog is not something that I have taken lightly. My hope was that I’ve done it justice. And unless THK decides to generously give this blog to me, this will be my last post as I leave MSA today.

In the meanwhile, below are what I think are the most important tidbits of information that I’ve picked up about interactive marketing over the years. Some of them are pretty obvious, but then again:

1. Never forget that it is interactive. There is nothing more essential for conversion than a site that responds to the needs of the target market.

2. SEO never ends because it is a mindset, not a project.

3. The best way to have a search engine friendly site is to have clear and concise performance goals before the first line is coded. Your goals should affect the brand, the tone, the products, the pricing and the overall architecture. Retrofitting a site for SEO is almost always second best.

4. If you are not committing yourself to understanding and immersing yourself in your Web site’s analytics, you are in the wrong business.

5. PPC will never get less expensive. Success should be determined by overall conversions and trended conversion rates. Expect CPC to go up every year, because it’s going to.

6. The best Web sites diversify their traffic drivers between organic and paid search, email marketing, affiliate marketing, social media and when appropriate online and offline media. Those who rely solely on one of these tactics won’t last.

7. There is no more crucial Analytics metrics than bounce rates and conversion rates. Everything else comes second.

8. The term “linkbait” is given a bad name, because if you have good intentions the premise is very sound. It’s not about scheming to get links. It’s about creating something that is so good, your interactive neighbors can’t help but link to you.

For non-marketing musings, I hope you’ll check out the new beer review blog that Adam and I will moderate.

Thanks for taking the time to read and provide great comments.

As a new parent, one of my greatest pleasures is taking my daughter to a kid-friendly museum in Raleigh, NC called PlaySpace. Essentially, they get to touch and explore just about everything. She goes nuts running around and then takes a 3-hour nap. It’s a beautiful thing.

I’ve known for a while that they were planning to merge with another museum further downtown in Raleigh called Exploris. The good news is that they are increasing the amount of space for the kids. The bad news is that they are blending what is a fantastic experience with one that is sorely lacking.

What does this have to do with interactive marketing?

The best way to succeed on the Web is to be the absolute best within your space. Find your market, learn from your market and cater to your market better than anyone else in your vertical.

Case and point, I found out about PlaySpace through three unsolicited word-of-mouth experiences—all glowing. Exploris on the other hand spent a small fortune promoting a piece of crap.

In the pursuit of greatness, there is no room for mediocrity.