Note from the Proprietor: In case you’re wondering what it’s all about, well, we’re smack in the middle of BLOGAPALOOZA! Hey, you’re welcome to join in the fun if you like! All ya gotta do is click that cute little link and read all about it!]

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Guest post by Brett Duncan who writes over at Marketing In Progress

January: “Don’t Drink Piss” Setting the scene for a year of economic bailouts and stimulation, this tried and true advice has been ringing in my ears for a year+ now.

February: In the Groove Great advice from a dear friend on the conditions in place when we really feel happiness.

March: Making Connections vs. Making Impressions In our fast world of tweets and pokes and networking and social media, it’s important to distinguish if we’re making connections or making impressions. There’s a big difference.

April: 5 Traits that Separate Good Salesmen from Bad Whether you’re in sales or not, we all deal with sales people. And we all know what we like and what we don’t. Why aren’t these traits more common in the sales folks we deal with every day?

May: World Domination and Your Business After playing quite a bit of Risk over a summer vacation, I came away with 19 vital lessons learned from playing Risk that easily applies to business strategy.

June: Enjoying the Process We can all pick things to do where we enjoy the end result. But real joy comes from when we do something that we actually enjoy the journey of getting to that end result.

July: Pen Marketing Can Be Fun After stumbling across this fun website for Tul pens, I actually managed to get myself a free set. You’ve got to check out the graphological analysis.

August: I Have a Crush on LinkedIn After one experience with LinkedIn asking for referrals, I walked away a huge fan.

September: Polarizing As the presidential elections rolled along, we marketers got some great fodder for thought. One of the main lessons is that only audacious, polarizing actions get attention.

October: Weathering the Storm As the economy plummets, the overall spirit of “weathering the storm” is becoming the popular chant. Maybe it’s not such a good idea.

November: A Privilege As easy as it is to look at taking care of your customer as a task, a duty, a job, whatever; think how things would change if you saw it as a privilege.

December: You’re Disgusting In the spirit of change and New Year’s Resolutions, here’s my challenge: figure out what it is that disgusts you about your life, and go change it.

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Brett Duncan is the sole writer of MarketingInProgress.com, a blog trying to make sense of the blur that is today’s marketing landscape. A born-and-bread Kentuckian who now lives in Dallas, Brett enjoys helping small businesses use the tools available to them today to get the word out about what they do.

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[Further note from the Proprietor: Hey, if you're interested in having your own "best of 2008" posts highlighted right here at the Middle Zone, then by all means, click on this link: (BLOGAPALOOZA: What I Learned From 2008) and read all about it! BLOGAPALOOZA will be open for entries from now until Sunday, January 25.]

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