The Viral Garden has published their list of the Top 25 Marketing Blogs (for week 15). Interesting strategy - justifying gratuitous linking to many of the high traffic blogs in an attempt to generate traffic and build recognition. I don’t see any criteria for how the rankings are sorted…but I’d like to.

Coming in at #17 was Logic + Emotion, which I found an ineteresting read. A lot of ideas here that seemed much more - how can I say it? - grounded than what’s published in a lot of other blogs. A post entitled “The New PR” is worth a look (or two).

Marketallica, despite its name, was an excellent read. Anecdotal and interesting, with a strong visual presence and images. Images! There’s still just way too much text on the web (ahem - yes, even here). At any rate, “11 Forces that will shape the Future of Entertainment (sic)” is a must-read. In that article, there’s a link to a chart that needs to be printed out and memorized. I won’t give the link here because I want you to read his blog.

Do it.

Her ‘real’ name is Christine Dolce, and she has a Wikipedia page in her own name - so you know she must be someone. Online, she’s known as ForBiddeN, and 976,420 ‘friends’ currently link to her MySpace page, making her one of the three most popular personas on that website.

A recent Economist article describes Dolce as follows: “Bleached, buxom and with impressive marketing savvy, she is arguably the most successful brand to emerge from MySpace, and has already launched a line of clothing.” (That line of clothing is “Destroyed Denim.”)

The print version of the Economist ran a photo of Dolce with the caption, “The future of marketing? Really?” underneath. It does seem a bit hard to believe. Blogger Mathew Ingram points out that MySpace superstars such as Dolce and Tila Tequila are, “busy making themselves, rather than having others make them.”

That’s the part I don’t buy. As Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 points out, “It’s not clear whether MySpace is getting any revenue from ForBiddeN’s [commercial] deal[s] or any of the ads she runs for her own products…MySpace is serving ads on ForBiddenN’s page.”

Both Dolce and Tequila remind me of Japan’s Kano sisters, who are famous for…well, just for being famous. In this case, the Kano sisters were essentially a pre-packaged product developed by media and PR firms that knew exactly what they were doing and how to build an image that would sell.

I don’t know who’s behind Dolce’s “brand building” efforts, but it’s clear that what has been done so far goes beyond the bounds of what one person could reasonably do. A recent Stuff magazine piece on Tequila noted, “Being famous now has become it’s own reward…Tila Tequila has used simple, and some might agree Punk DIY ethics to create her stardom, one fan at a time…”

That last line is what I don’t (and you shouldn’t) believe. It’s part of the ‘brand’ image, what a PR firm somewhere would like consumers to believe. Rupert Murdoch didn’t pay $580 million for MySpace to stand by while other people collect the ROI.

Onalytica.com has recently released their report on the difference between the most ‘influential’ and the most ‘popular’ authorities on the topic of blog marketing (link goes to .pdf file). The New York Times tops both lists, while Seth Godin ranks #3 for being ‘influential’ and #4 on the ‘popular’ list. Josh Hallett, on his Hyku blog, says, “Scratching your head? So am I?” over being ranked #2 in the ‘influence’ category.

The final conlcusion stated in Onalytica’s online report is that, “Sheer popularity can give influence, but…popularity is not a requirement for influence.” In his recent take on YouTube, Mr Godin states, “Right here, right now, it’s about people, not organizations.”

Though New York Times may beg to differ, I hope we are on the cusp of a deluge of online individual expression. Though what happens if we spend more time navigating through it instead of creating and adding to it?

There are 47 million “.com” domain names currently on the web.

Is the above statement true or false? Does it even matter?

It’s actually true (according to the Startup Journal). In an artcile titled, “All the Good URLs Have Been Taken,” they report on the fear that web marketers can no longer find a URL that suites their taste. And, in response to the second question above, no - it doesn’t really matter that there are 47 million domains ending in “.com”. Although many folks certainly do worry that all the ‘good’ .com extensions have been taken and that they no longer have the advantage of a snappy name to reach their potential online customers, it doesn’t really matter.

So what does matter? 47 million is quite a lot. Let’s take a look at exactly what 47 million means:

1. A woman in Nagano, Japan has been swindled out of a total of 47 million yen on over 100 occasions.

2. Dennis Forbes, the world’s “pre-eminent domainologist,” has made a hobby of studying those 47 million “.com” domains in his spare time.

3. Cellular phone services in West Africa now reach 47 million people.

4. There have been 47 million abortions in the United States since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

5. Heather Mills is reported to have settled for a $47 million divorce settlement from Sir Paul McCartney.

And twisting the numbers a bit:

6. Million dollar home sales are reported to be up 47% in California.

So there you have it. Numbers never lie, but statistics do all the time. Does the existence of 46,999,999 other “.com” domains mean that yours can’t reach its intended audience? Not by a long shot.

But it does mean that you’re going to have to be more creative in order to reach them. Besides, you should have been doing that already, right?

Because everyone knows that some million dollar homes are worth more than others.