Topic: marketing

I had a significant change in my life on December 31, 2009, as that was the day my family and I sold off our ownership positions in SOAR Communications to my former business partner.

Interestingly, it didn’t hit me until two days ago that I needed to make changes to all of my various public Internet-based profiles (and biographies) to accurately reflect my new reality. Which leads to the point of this blog post:

When was the last time you reviewed and/or updated your public profiles (and/or bios)?

For me, it had been WAY TOO LONG.

In taking a personal accounting, I realized I’ve got profiles on

• Facebook,
• LinkedIn,
• Plaxo,
• Google,
• Flickr,
• Twitter, and (of course)

on two blogs/Websites:

• Politis Communications, and
• The Betty Factor.

So I’ve now started that process (as shown in the photo above), and I plan to spend this morning reviewing and updating ALL of my public profiles/biographies.

And if you haven’t done so lately, I recommend you do the same:

Review and update each of your public profiles and biographies today.

I’m going to add this as a once-a-quarter task to my calendar to make sure I stay on top of this task in the future. I hope you do so too.

Early indications are that Apple made a mistake using the term iPad to name its newest product (an eBook-reader).

The Apple iPad (photo courtesy of iLounge)

Within minutes of the official disclosure of the iPad name, the first negative missives began to hit the Internet, equating the term “pad” within iPad to a feminine hygiene napkin.

Soon the term iTampon began appearing on Twitter, with many tweets chastising Apple’s public relations and marketing department for not contemplating that at least some women might be offended with the iPad name. Other tweets provided indecorous comparisons between a feminine pad, the iPad and a tampon — hence, the emergence of the mocking, farcical term: iTampon.

In fact, by 4:30 p.m. (PST), iTampon had supplanted iPad in microblog posts on Twitter and had become the No. 2 “Currently Trending” term on Twitter (according to Tweetstats).

Look, it’s bad enough that my wife makes me buy feminine hygiene products for her and our girls at the grocery store. But iPad?!?! Are you kidding me?

I’m surprised someone inside of Apple’s distortion reality field didn’t stand up and say,

“Steve, ya know, half of the potential customers for this product might think of a sanitary napkin when they hear the name iPad.”

But maybe that’s just me. Am I off base here or not?

I think not. I’m convinced Apple made a major PR faux pas with the iPad name, a real marketing blunder.

That’s why I’m giving Apple a “Sad Betty Award” for launching this new product as the iPad.

Last thought. Expect the late night hosts to start joking about the iPad as early as tonight, but no later than tomorrow for sure!

Many businesses don’t think SEO is difficult, and they are right. It’s not rocket science, but it does require applied strategy, testing, and a lot of patience. Faced with the choice of going all out SEO (in or out of house), or putting it into the hands of a few part-timers to cut costs, some choose the latter. They believe the knowledge to rank a website is now mainstream enough that anybody can do it. A couple of interns would have no problem fixing title tags on a website, but unfortunately for that company, search engine marketing has advanced beyond title and description tags.

It is great news that many companies are seeing value in SEO and SEM. It makes it easier for companies like SEO.com to persuade people to let us do what works. But the basic nature of some SEO services has led some to question whether or not the investment is worth it. It is tempting to view SEO as simply a task that once achieved by a first page ranking can be eliminated or at least outsourced for cheap.

So why is this misguided thinking?

SEO has become something much bigger than most people realize. This is why some use the term ‘SEM’ (search engine marketing), or ‘online marketing’, instead of SEO. SEO plays a very important part in what we do, but when you take into account our people who run PPC campaigns for clients, optimize site layouts for better conversion rates, re-design websites for better usability, and whatever else we do, you have something resembling a full-service web marketing firm.

More than building a link or two

Consider the advantage that comes with expertise. For example,did you read Greg Shuey’s post about building links from relevant sites? If you didn’t know any better, you might think all link building was created equal. Turns out, there is a direct correlation between link building and on-page site structure. Go back and read up to find out more.

Or how about Rick Hardman’s discussion about Twitter? As social media continues to evolve, will you have anyone to consult with about its direction? Chances are, what you know about social media’s strategic relation to SEO is already a bit dated. You could study up, but you’ve got a business to run.

Maybe you missed David Malmborg’s post on why you shouldn’t send PPC traffic to your home page. Would you have continued to send all your hot leads to a poorly laid out page if you didn’t know that it was costing you money? Maybe, maybe not. But unless you had somebody on staff that had tested a landing page versus a home page for PPC traffic, you might never even think of something like that.

Pardon me for being a bit sales-pitchy there, but when you understand what SEO/SEM entails, it becomes clear that interns won’t cut it. Because while the business world got web savvy, online marketers were moving ahead. Some simple SEO tasks became commoditized, but web strategy became more complicated as social media, video, etc., gained acceptance. In sum, it takes more now than it ever has before to get the results you want. You could do some link building and content creation yourself, but your resources would be better spent on strategic search engine marketing.

What makes a good writer? What is it about a blog post, story, letter or column that makes it engaging, that makes someone want to continue reading? How can I become a better writer?

If you’re in the public relations, marketing, investor relations and/or strategic communications world, perhaps you’ve already asked yourself these or similar questions. I know I have.

The snap answer, of course,  is to write. I’ve heard and read that answer more than 100 times — “If you want to be a better writer then you have to write.”

Okay, duh! But in my experience writing alone is not enough, especially if you’re not a particularly good writer to begin with.

I believe that the most important part of improving your skills as a writer, to becoming a better writer, is to have a good editor (or a good teacher, as the case may be).

In other words, I want someone who is better than me looking over my metaphorical shoulder prompting, prodding and pointing out specific examples of how and where I can improve my writing.

This point was brought back home to me this morning when a long-time friend asked me to review something he had written, and for the record, he told me I could “let him have it from every angle.” So here, in part, is what I wrote to my friend.

•  
  • new,
  • unexpected,
  • controversial,
  • insightful,
  • thought-provoking or
  • out-of-the-ordinary.

Are the items I mention above hard and fast rules? Of course not.

But I know they helped me to become a better writer - that and having a good editor.

Okay, it takes quite a bit to wow Brad and I....but JVC really did it this year!  And we almost missed it!

SUPER WOW technology - JVC brought to the show the "$1 million theater".  In it they were showing their new D-ILA RS 4000 video projector.  This baby shows 4096 pixels across each image and 2400 pixels down the image - or the equivalent of 4 concurrent HDTV video streams (approx 10 million total pixels per image). 

JVC filmed some gorgeous content in Okinawa, including several ladies is full traditional Japanese kimonos.  As they played it, it seemed that we could literally walk into the picture - you could see the threads of their kimonos - the quality and richness were unbelievable - it really was like a full movie theater image, right there in the living room.   The projector can either play one image at full resolution, or can play 4 concurrent HDTV images.

Either way - Super WOW!  At the current price (overheard) of $175,000, it's a bit out of the range of most consumers - but it does give us a sense of where the technology is heading - to truly lifelike color and richness.  They also showed a 3D clip from an upcoming Imax movie (about endangered Reefs) - using TWO of the RS 4000's.  We just used polarized plastic glasses like in the movie theater - but it really delivered a phenomenal 3D experience -dramatically richer than what is currently coming on to the market.  Stay tuned for that in your living room!

Note, it doesn't even seem to be on the website yet, and the D-ILA link as well as this press release on a more consumer oriented product in the family, was as close as I could come.  If you can afford it, ask your favorite dealer!

After walking over 1 million square feet of tradeshow space at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, the marketing side of me just couldn't resist recounting the "what not to do" of tradeshows - illustrated by real life examples.

Here I'll list the tips, and in subsequent posts, I'll tell the stories - some of them even include photos of offending behavior!

1. Don't disgust your customers
2. Don't confuse your customers
3. Don't make your customers nervous
4. Don't ignore your customers
5. Don't assume your customers care (it's your job to make them care)
6. Don't let your team behave like barbarians
7. Don't be a Little Fish in a Big Pond, when you can be the Big Fish in a Little Pond!
8. Don't substitute Cleavage for Content

Okay, the top 3 TV's themes were the "#1" cool thing at CES.  Here are items 2 - 7, in mostly descending order of interesting.  Again, I'm looking for themes that impact the industry, not "yet another gadget".  There were thousand, probably 10's of thousands, of gadgets, most of which will be 'yesterday's news' by mid- year.  I have tried here to identify those themes will are indicative of shifts or impacts on the industry.

Do you like designing on whiteboards?  I do.   Colorful markers against a clean, white surface inspire all kinds of creativity and fun.

Recently David Crossett of Ready Receipts gave me a great tip.  He told me that instead of going to your local OfficeBOX superstore and paying $200 for a 4×8 whiteboard, just hit HomeDepot instead and get a $12 piece of showerboard.  It works just as good and if you need a smaller size they will cut it for you on site for no additional charge!  At that price, you can line your walls with thinking space.  Power to the Consumer–thanks David!

Mike J. Berry
www.RedRockResearch.com

First of all, there’s a LOT of misinformation about the new FTC guidelines about bloggers, affiliates, and testimonials.

I’m going to outline the main points (from the link above) and give a couple example disclaimers.

1. Clearly Disclose Typical Results

From the FTC page:

Notice that you CAN use testimonials with results that aren’t typical. If you do, you just have to also disclose somewhere what the average user might expect.

2. Disclose Affiliate Relationships

From the FTC page:

If you get paid or get free “stuff” from advertisers, disclose it.

3. Don’t Lie

From the FTC page:

Don’t make false statements (fake testimonials, fake checks, fake results, …), don’t lie, and disclose your affiliate relationships.

Example

Here are a couple example disclaimers. Another great way to find your own disclaimers is to look at blogs or websites that are of the same nature as yours, and look at their disclaimer.

I would put this in the footer of every page on your site.

Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. I suggest you consult your own attorney.

Simple:

Blog Disclaimer:

Money Making Disclaimer:

Marketing Story Disclaimer:

If you have more insight on this, please post in the comments.
If you have more disclaimer info, please post it also.

If this was helpful please Digg it –>

I haven’t been this excited about a product coming out in a long time.

This is a special interview I did with Peter, the creator of a product to be released tomorrow.

What Peter is teaching is EXACTLY what I do on my websites in terms of the layout and design. It’s exactly what I have my GUYS do for me to make me money each month.

Where it’s different is in his promotion strategy, which is BETTER than what I’ve been doing.

Just listen to this:

Download the mp3
My post about making sales

Get NanoBloggers Here

(when you do, notice the sales process…it’s part of nanoblogging)
(here’s my guarantee)
After buying, listen to the bonus audio (it’s friggin’ amazing!)

The best Internet marketing strategies of 2009 revolved around establishing credibility and targeted exposure. The search engine optimization company says similar tactics will work in 2010.

SALT LAKE CITY — In response to an eMarketer.com study stating that businesses will spend up to 75 percent more on Internet marketing this holiday season, SEO.com – a full-service Internet marketing company in Salt Lake City – announces the top 10 most effective Internet marketing strategies of 2009.

“Businesses want to make sure every penny goes to something that produces results,” said Dave Bascom, chief executive of SEO.com. “For that reason, more and more money is being allocated to Internet marketing because it’s measurable and has proven to increase ROI.”

There are a wide variety of Internet marketing methods, the most effective being the ones that establish credibility, trust and directly target a demographic.

“Credibility is the most important,” said Ash Buckles, SEO.com’s director of search engine optimization. “When people are watching their money closely, they will only buy from companies and Web sites that they trust.”

Credibility, Buckles said, depends on how well a site is architected, how many other sites and networks link back to your site, how much social media and buzz surrounds a domain, how often a site goes down, how unique a site’s content is and how fast a site loads.

The Top 10 Internet Marketing Strategies of 2009:

1. Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – Web sites in the top of the search results are viewed as the leaders of their industry, and more than 80 percent of Web users click on the first listings. Good SEO services will consistently deliver a huge return on investment.

2. Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn – Social media marketing engages customers on a personal level, and can rapidly create buzz around a product, brand or business. In 2008, Pubcon search conference spent $75,000 to marketing their conference. In 2009, Pubcon saved that money and used strictly social media advertising with great success.

3. Keyword Research – Everything revolves around discovering what words and phrases your customers are searching for online.

4. Video Marketing – This is becoming more important both on-site and off-site. Videos help convert Web site visitors into sales. In the universal search results, people tend to click on links with videos more than those without – even if the video link is ranked lower.

5. Online Public Relations – This builds credibility online, in the mainstream media and for potential customers. Online public relations can help create a lot of buzz about your site through bloggers and industry sites, and can boost organic SEO.

6. Link Building – A key element in search engine optimization. Search engines like “popular sites.” From the search engine’s point of view, a credible and popular site will have a lot of links pointing to it.

7. Blogging – Blogs provide additional site content (which search engines love), graphics and other viral content to disseminate information and tie in with social media. Blogs can build your credibility by establishing your site as the hub for industry information.

8. Conversion Web Design – A good Web design will keep visitors on your site and sell them products or services. In the end, it all comes down to a site that makes money.

9. Paid Search Marketing – Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is an extremely targeted strategy with measurable, immediate results. This enables a more efficient spending of marketing dollars.

10. Email Marketing – Nurture relationships and retain existing customers. It’s much easier to keep old customers than to get new ones. Send good offers and valuable information that’s customized to their needs.

“To have success on the Internet, you need a combination of all these strategies to drive traffic to your site, establish credibility of your brand and convert traffic into sales,” Bascom said.

About SEO.com
SEO.com is an SEO firm that makes its clients money by driving traffic to their websites through aggressive search engine optimization, paid search marketing, social media marketing and blogging. SEO.com then turns those visitors into sales through conversion-focused Web design and development and copywriting. Clients range from small startups to Fortune 100 companies. Follow SEO.com on Twitter for the latest SEO industry news.

Betty Mann (of "The Betty Factor" fame)

Betty Benton Mann, my 83-year-old mother-in-law and the inspiration behind The Betty Factor, died in her sleep early Friday morning, December 4, 2009 of health matters incident to old age and having her gall bladder removed earlier in the week.

Here is a copy of her obituary.

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After 83 wonderful years on earth, Betty Benton Mann returned home to her Father-in-Heaven, the Savior, Jesus Christ, many loving family members and friends, and her beloved husband, Ray, on December 4, 2009, nearly two years to the day after Ray’s passing.

Born July 3, 1926 in Boise, Idaho to Mamie Thompson and Otto G. Benton, Betty was the fifth of nine children. She was raised in Boise, Twin Falls, Idaho and Redondo Beach, California.

From the day she first walked herself to services as a young child, Betty was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). As a teenager, she was president of her ward Golden Gleaner organization and helped plan and run the first ever LDS Youth Conference in southern California.

After graduating from Redondo Union High School, she moved to North Salt Lake to help her oldest sister, Wanda, care for her children, and it was there that she met her future husband, Ray Elwood Mann.

Betty and Ray were married in the Salt Lake Temple of the LDS church on May 4, 1948. They settled in Bountiful, Utah where they raised three daughters and two sons, while she also worked as a dental assistant for many years. Betty was active in the PTA in Bountiful where she ran the Halloween Carnival for three years and served as PTA president for two year.

After their youngest children graduated from high school in 1975, Betty and Ray spent an adventurous year in 1976 in West Germany for Ray’s employer, Chicago Bridge & Iron. The next year, Ray was transferred to world headquarters in Chicago where they lived until 1984. During their time in Naperville, Illinois, Betty filled an eight-year volunteer assignment with LDS Social Services working with out-of-wedlock mothers, including service as a counselor to birth mothers and transporting newborns to adoptive parents. She also served for a time as a member of the Relief Society presidency in the Glenbard Ward in Illinois.

Betty and Ray moved to Sandy, Utah in 1984 where they made their home for the rest of their lives. In Sandy, Betty served for 18 years in the LDS church’s Data Entry Program in the Canyon View Stake. She and Ray also served a one-year LDS Service Mission in 1994 near Bakersfield, California for the Home Management Department.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, five siblings, her husband, and one son, Clyde. She is survived by four children, Linda, Pam (Harold) Egginton, Todd, and Allisha (David) Politis; 18 grandchildren (evenly divided between boys and girls); and 14 great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be held at Mountain View Mortuary at 3115 East 7800 South in Cottonwood Heights, Utah from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 8, 2009. The funeral will be held at the same location at 11 a.m. on Wed., Dec. 9, preceded by an additional viewing from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Interment, on site, will follow immediately after the funeral.

The family extends its heartfelt thanks and admiration for all of the fantastic doctors and medical providers who worked with Betty in addressing her health concerns during the past few years. In addition, Betty (and Ray) loved living at South Towne Ranch in Sandy, Utah where they made many wonderful friends.

Betty had a sharp mind and wit her entire life, and she loved studying the gospel of Jesus Christ and learning about LDS church history. She was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, and although she will be missed, we are happy she has “graduated” from this life to be reunited with her husband and best friend, Ray.

Goodbye for now, Betty.

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Although we had some initial son-in-law / mother-in-law challenges early in the 28 years of our relationship, we both grew to love and respect each other over time, and I’m grateful Allisha and I were able to have both Betty and Ray live so close by as we raised our five children.

She was a good person and taught me much, not the least of which was to always remember to work and work and work to make sure what I wrote could be easily understood by anyone, even my mother-in law.

To that end, I will always use the phrase “The Betty Factor” as a shorthand reminder of that lesson. I will also keep this blog alive in her honor and as a way of continuing to teach about the importance of keeping all marketing messages simple and on-point.

Thank you, Betty, and for now, goodbye. 

I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to do good videos on my blog.

If you look at some of my earlier videos you’ll see they’re not that good, and they took me 10x longer to do than the ones I do today.

This is how I currently create the videos for my blog (and for my other websites).

Today’s Buzz Your Business features a special interview with Master PR Strategist Jill Lublin. Jill is an international speaker and the author of three bestsellers; Guerrilla Publicity, Networking Magic and Get Noticed… Get Referrals, her latest book to hit the shelves. She teaches crash courses on publicity around the world  and her passion is to help people bootstrap their publicity. That’s the tip she wants to share with you today: How to bootstrap your publicity, improve your visibility and get your business moving!

BB: How would you say bootstrapping relates to publicity?

JL: Guerrilla Publicity is all about bootstrapping; the subtitle of my book says, “Using time and imagination instead of money,” and that means bootstrapping! I’ve always been a bootstrapper myself. I started my own business on credit cards. I’ve grown it and I am now a successful author, I run courses all over the world; but truthfully it started on nothing; some good ideas, and me and my energy! And I think that’s what bootstrapping often is; it relies on terrific people with their vision and their purpose; and then you go out into the world. But you do it smartly, using specific tactics and techniques. In regards to publicity, you don’t go out and buy expensive ads. That would be crazy. You don’t go waste money on high-falutin’ marketing strategies. You take step-by-step replicatable systems that drive profits to your pockets and prospects to your door.

BB: In terms of you own consulting; how would you support someone who is launching a new business and bootstrapping?

JL: The first thing I look at with any client is what I call, “It’s all about your message.” How are you going to get your message out to the public so that the public embraces it and says, yes! I want to hire you. I want to play with you. I want to buy your product or service. And that’s what we’re trying to get people to do; buy your product and your service but without hitting them over the head. We do it by giving them stories and placing stories in the media using what I refer to as, “Everything you’ve got;” which is all about creating a message that works. You have to solve people’s problems and present yourself as an expert. Experts solve problems; so stop thinking of yourself as a widget maker, or a provider of services, instead think of yourself as an expert. So what are you helping other people with? What problems are you solving? Once you focus on that, then you can go into the media, then you can make the media interested in you. It’s never about your business and that’s a mistake most bootstrappers and entrepreneurs make. They keep thinking that the news – and that’s what we’re talking about here, the media, publicity – is all about them and it isn’t; it’s about the readers, and that’s what they need to keep in mind.

BB: What are the three publicity tips you would give to bootstrappers? Are there three things they can do?

JL: Yes, first thing is baby steps. Focus on your message. Don’t just bring yourself out there until you have honed in on your message. That will help you have something to say when you’re addressing prospects without being a deer in the headlights… it will become a script that you can use in networking events, with prospects, clients, customers and with the media.

Number two is become a celebrity in your own backyard. In other words, don’t forget where you live and your geographical region; make sure you get lots of local publicity. National publicity often comes from local, from the city or provincial news. Create ongoing announcements that you can place in the local business journals and the local daily newspaper every sixty days or so.

The other piece that I would suggest is focus on your “ooh and aah factor.” What is it about you that makes people go “ooh and aah” about you? What is it about your personal message that other people would be interested in? A variation of that is to do what I call “Everything you got;” which means capitalizing on your ethnicity or your religious affiliation, so if you’re a Christian, you will want to target Christian media.

BB: What do you think it takes to be an entrepreneur?

JL: It takes guts, determination, focus, commitment, and a “No matter what” attitude, because there’s going to be plenty of “No matter whats.” You have to be willing to keep going and to believe in yourself.  And to stand tall, because sometimes it’ll be all rough, sometimes you won’t know where the cash flow is coming from and sometimes you’ll be praying for your next customer, but by being consistent and persistent – those two key words are very important, consistent and persistent – and if you focus on publicity, marketing and keeping your vision forward, no matter what, then you will find success. I know very few people who don’t who are that committed. So keep going and keep a “No matter what” attitude so that you can stay in the limelight.

BB: How did you get your idea for your current business?

JL: I was working in the music business helping musicians promote themselves and I found out I was really good at it. That was after going to law school for a year, which I did not like because for a creative mind like mine, it just wasn’t the place to be. So I ended up working for a music business attorney, and the music side of the business was interesting so I started promoting entertainers and musicians – usually for independent record labels. Then I started working my way up and became Director of Promotion and Publicity at several independent record labels. And here is where I learned to bootstrap because I was working for independent record labels with no budgets and no marketing department besides for me – I was the marketing department – and I could see these big record labels marketing departments with two million dollar budgets! I mean, give me two millions and I’ll make anyone famous! But we had to do it with zero budget, or by bootstrapping, or with fifteen thousand dollar max. We once sold out a Carnegie Hall show before the artist even arrived in New York! We used what is now called viral marketing and which I then called grassroots marketing. We used all our resources and got very creative in order to build interest for our artists. That’s were I got started and then I opened my own business because I thought if I can do this here, I can do this for others as well. And I love working with all kinds of businesses and all kinds of entrepreneurs because each one presents a new challenge, a slight variation on the marketing aspect, and this brings together all my bootstrapping ideas and my Guerrilla Publicity techniques. And it all serves to move entrepreneurs forward and my commitment is to helping entrepreneurs get their message heard. That’s what I am all about.

BB: Do you think it’s important to have support from friends and family when running a business?

JL: Yes, it’s important. I am not saying that you’re always going to get it because they’ll look at you and say, “gosh you’re not making any money,” or “how come you can’t afford this or can’t afford that?” What can help with that is to set out rules and have a strong foundation and get help for the gaps in your knowledge. Mine was around financial literacy and how to structure a business. So I got trained and I also got a team around me. I am all about hiring a team, even if it’s for one hour a week, if that’s all you can afford. Or get an intern, who does not cost anything except for my time and consulting and that’s a very good bootstrapping idea.

BB: Do you think it’s important to be aware of your higher purpose in business and if so, is your higher purpose related to your business?

JL: I think my life, my business and my spiritual practice; it’s all become one now. It wasn’t always like that and in fact I used to feel quite a bit of frustration because what I always wanted was to touch people’s hearts, connect people and help them get their message heard. And then I found myself in a man’s world of business and then I realized that this is exactly what I got to do! Touch people’s hearts, connect people and help them get their message heard! So yes, I want to be one with my life, my business and my spiritual life. Before I go on stage, I pray. I hope that I will touch the hearts of the people in the audience. I pray for God’s words to work through me so I can touch others. I pray that I can give them benefit and value by my being in that room and that I too shall be supported, because it is a symbiotic relationship, of course. I feel that I am here to do God’s work, and I don’t think of it as religious but a spiritual calling. Right now I am doing God’s work by helping people get their message out and that’s pretty powerful. I am also working on a TV show about hope, called “Messages of Hope” and that’s powerful too and that’s part of my calling. It’s important to structure my business so it works, financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually. It’s all about doing what works for you.

BB: Does spirituality or religion play a part in helping you succeed?

JL: Yes. In the past few years, I have been working closely with spiritual mentor Bill Bowman. Prior to that, I had always been committed to my transformational work. I am very business oriented and I am very structured in many ways but then I have this spiritual world where I have always gone to learn about transformation and practice it too, first in myself and then in the world! I believe that as we heal ourselves, we heal the world and how fabulous it is for me that as I heal myself, I heal my clients and that, who I become, they become and we can all rise to the top together! So I am very committed to my growth and transformation, I have always been a seeker. But I have noticed that in the last few years of working with my mentor – who is very gentle and all about spirituality and soulfulness – I have noticed my business increasing, my revenues increasing, my clarity around my mission expanding, my level of peace expanding, no matter what is happening in the outside world and we all know it’s been a wild ride.

BB: One of Bootstrap Business’s principles is “Know Your Channel,” and I imagine that in publicity it’s very important to not only know your message but who wants to hear it. Could you share some comments about channel and PR?

JL: In that regard, what I would do is look at your target audience; you have to find your market. Once you determine that, you have to ask: what are they reading, what are they watching, what are they listening to in the media? And then you go after that. You want to get your message heard in those areas. One of the first sessions with my clients is all about that. So you call it channel and I call it reaching your target audience, but it’s the same thing. Who are they, where do they live, are they in your region, are they national, or international, are they in your age range, are they men or women, do they belong to a certain group either ethnic or otherwise. Those are the questions you need to answer and those are your channels. The good thing about those channels is that they each have media specifically oriented to them and that’s a good thing.

BB: Do you have any rules or guiding principles that you use in running your business?

JL: If it ain’t fun, don’t do it. And that includes working with clients now if I can see some… let’s call them warning signals. It’s come to a point where I won’t work with people if they are too demanding or too difficult to work with, or simply not enjoyable because life is too short. And I have rules in my business. I have no-refund policies; I have contracts people have to sign. I am much more structured. I know exactly how long I spend with each client. We have a system now on how to reach people and I think that having systems in place is a good guiding principle. In publicity, it means making replicatable and duplicatable systems and the truly magnificent thing to me about how I work with people is that they get to do this over and over again.

BB: What are the top three things people should make duplicatable in regards to their publicity?

JL: The first thing is how they send out announcements and what they do with them. The other is the step-by-step formula, like what are they going to do every day, every week, every month or every quarter. The third thing is having someone who is scripted and who can smile and dial; someone who will get your message heard and get people to pay attention to you.

BB: How important is it to set goals and reward ourselves when we meet those goals?

JL: I set myself a monthly revenue goal and, each day, I write three high value activities that I am going to do to meet that goal; those activities have to be measurable in both time and money and this is a powerful strategy that has guided my life for the last few years and interestingly enough, reaching my monthly revenue goal is often dependent on whether I accomplished those three high value activities. I highly recommend it!

Thank you Jill!

For more info on Jill Lublin, her books and her schedule of courses please visit: www.jilllublin.com

To find her books and more on Amazon.com: http://tinyurl.com/ydxxwex

To win a chance to get your business buzzed on our network, please send an email to: buzz@bootstrapbusiness.org

I had a comment on my blog that I thought was worthy of a full answer.

As an addition to what I wanted to say in this video, outsourcing to the Philippines isn’t a fad. It’s not one of those “you have to get in at the beginning or it’s going to be bad” things. This isn’t going anywhere. It’s not something that changes very often.

Below are excerpts of the comment and my answers as videos below each excerpt.

http://www.jonasblog.com/2009/04/how-i-do-niche-research.html

Devin made me this nice video the other day asking for some advice.
I think the question is pretty relevant to most IMers.

Here’s my response

The one thing I forgot to talk about on my video is that I would probably install http://www.crazyegg.com on the site to see what people are currently doing when they come to your site.

Good luck!

A few weeks ago, the Utah Fund of Funds presented one of their quarterly entrepreneurial mentoring meetings. They invited Todd Jensen of TKonline Solutions  to present.  Todd did a great job of discussing the current state of SEO marketing.   A couple of highlights that I didn't know (for those of you who aren't already SEO pros)

Natural Search:

• Give Google the Goods (text, content, not flash and graphics)
  • THINK LINKBAIT (Something others would want to link to)
• Googles Page Rank (tm) is still the biggest part of the ranking algorithm - this is your "online reputation"
• This includes: 
  • On page factors such as content, Clean code (so they don't get lost - and database driven sites often lose Google)
  • Blogging is a great way to get new content onto your site - every new post is a new page for Google to index!

• All links are not created equal
• Bigger name institutions get more weight
  •     .edu
  •     .gov
  •     .org

• A one way link counts more than a reciprocal link
• A press release is a way getting quality links
• Link swaps don't really give you credit
• LSI - Latest Semantic Indexing
•    The Context of your Content Matters!
• Spiders can "now" look at PDF's - but it's new
• If you can highlight the text with your cursor, it can be indexed

The team at GoTo Meeting sponsored a fun webinar last week, “The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Create
the Story”.

This is a marketing opp for them to show off their "recorded webinars", but I enjoyed the content, perhaps I've just seen, and produced, too  many bad powerpoints!  The author does a good job of identifying how to declutter presentations and make them more impactful.

To download a copy of the PresentationSecrets eBook, you can visit:

http://bit.ly/Presentations-eBook

The team at GoTo Meeting sponsored a fun webinar last week,

Today starts the first in a series of interviews with Woman who are impacting the technology space in Utah. Lava7, a new Digital Marketing Agency, based in Orem, Utah, and headed by Jack Hadley and Maile Keone. Both Jack and Maile have years of PR and Marketing experience, and are using that experience to help their customers, which “combines remarkable mindset and creativity to execute social media strategies that achieve business objectives.”

Related posts:

1. Recruiting to Utah Myth Buster Series: K-12 Education Options
2. Women Tech Awards: Kelly McCrystal, Chief Operating Officer, SpectrumDNA

There are many different types of online marketing strategies available. Two of the highest-impact options in the Marketing Manager’s arsenal are SEO and PPC (Pay-Per-Click). These two channels share many similarities. Ultimately, you are trying to obtain a link to your site in the search results for increased click-through.

Unfortunately, many companies are so concerned with whether or not they are ranking, that little thought is placed into what happens when the visitor lands on the site. For this reason, I wanted to discuss how to setup a landing page, or the entry point of the visitor, be it from Google organic or PPC.

Let me start out with a simple question. If you had both a SEO campaign and a PPC campaign based around the same keyword, do you want the landing page to be the same for both campaigns? Generally speaking, you would not have your PPC ad point to your SEO optimized page. This is because the visitors coming from PPC are visiting for different reasons than those coming from organic search.

The Reason for the Difference

SEO optimized pages should be informative, supplying the visitor the answer to the question which spurred the search. PPC optimized pages should be “salesy.” You have interrupted their search with your awesome ad, it is your chance to sell them your product. Landing pages, both SEO and PPC, should be optimized to meet the needs of the visitor. SEO pages are content-based, while PPC pages are all about bells and whistles, flashy gadgets and images to stir that “emotional response” you hear so much about from a sales manager. All the while you need to keep it simple with easy usability.

How to Optimize a PPC Landing Page

Continue the flow from ad to landing page. This is the first thing that needs to happen when structuring a PPC landing page. A good example of this would be if you shouted out 15% off on your ad, be sure that 15% off is easily found on the landing page. If you are focusing on a keyword, make sure the keyword stands out.

Statistics say that you’ll have 6.263548 seconds, or some minimalistic amount of time to catch the eye of the visitor, and ensure them that they are on the right page. With this in mind, you need to make sure that the major topic of your landing page is clear cut.

A large “element of familiarity” is a great way to ensure the visitor that they found what they are looking for. This could be a familiar logo or icon on the site that relates to the major keyword. For example, if the visitor found your ad when searching for “paper clips,” a “familiar” image that could stand out would be a nice looking paper clip near the top.

You will also want to have a clear call-to-action (C2A) above the fold of the landing page. Once the visitor is certain if found the right page, we need a goal or path we want the visitor to follow. You have a goal with your landing page; make it easy for your visitor to accomplish the what you want.

Note: C2As work more effectively with an incentive; feel free to offer free shipping, discounts or freebies when the visitor fulfills your C2A.

Finally, it is important to give visitors easy access to more information about the company, the service or the product. You don’t need your complete website navigation on your landing page, but you want to link to the most important pages. You definitely need to link to the privacy policy, about us page, contact us page, and the SEO optimized “informative” page that will have relevant content. This way your visitor can easily find any additional information they may want before committing.

For good measure I’ll throw this out for people, because 1) it is important and 2) someone will forget, make sure your PPC landing page is “crawl-able” for search spiders, and that the content found on the landing page is unique. You still want these pages to be SEO friendly even though they are not your SEO optimized landing page.

Here is a great example of a well optimized PPC Landing page.
(website: ezonlinefiling.com)

These Elements Can Work on Your SEO Optimized Page

Even though you need these elements on your PPC landing page to be effective, they are not needed for SEO pages to succeed in ranking. However, what is the harm of having these elements there? PPC ads are designed for high conversion rates. There have been many studies to understand visitor behavior so that PPC is more effective.

When setting up your SEO pages, add the element of familiarity. Make the flow from the search results to the landing page easy by being obviously relevant. You want to have that call to action at the top and maybe a second on at the bottom of the page. All of these elements around solid, unique content make for a perfect SEO Landing page.

Even though the respective landing pages need to be unique, combining certain elements to the different landing pages can be beneficial. Study out trends that are having a good impact on your visitors and try to incorporate that into other types of landing pages. It may not always work, but consider the options.

Image via Wikipedia

This week, I decided to unsubscribe from (nearly) every maketing email list. I'm shocked at how many I was on. A few observations:

• In general most of the email marketing systems work pretty well and no one was especially onerous to get off of. Many, however, did make the unsubscribe process unnecessarily confusing. "If you want to unsubscribe, uncheck these three boxes, check the two odd boxes in the next section, and hold your nose while pushing submit."
• Also, I found that I was on multiple lists from the same organization and usually unsubscribing from one didn't unsubscribe me from the others. Organizations create new lists, copy you in from other lists, and then treat them as silos.

In all, I've probably unsubscribed from over 100 lists this week. I've been too long in the habit of just deleting them, even though I wasn't going to ever read them again. What brought this to my attention was setting up my iPhone to see my email accounts (IMAP). Once I started having to process email on a smaller, less productive interface, I felt the pain more accutely. Now, hopefully, I'll have a little less work to do.

Tags: email marketing

Branding, simplified.

Branding for startups, small businesses and Entrepreneurs…

Some “branding experts” are saying that you should spend thousands of dollars on branding. Don’t believe them.

First, I must explain, that there may be a valid reason for some companies to spend thousands, even millions, of dollars on branding, however, these are typically large corporations and other well-established companies – the ones that can afford to spend this kind of money on a brand.

Why would you spend thousands of dollars on branding when you may not even know who your target-market is? Or maybe you haven’t even made any profit yet? If that’s you – you still don’t know if what you’re getting into is going to work. Take things one step at a time.

What should you do now?

It might still be a good idea to spend some money on a logo, a nicely designed website and promotional materials…. but don’t overdo it. You probably won’t need to spend more than $300 on a nice logo and could realistically get a website (with a branded design based on your logo) for less than $1000.

Everyone needs a website, it’s an essential marketing tool for your business… but don’t be fooled into spending thousands of dollars when it’s not necessary. It might be necessary depending on what you want to do with your website, but honestly, most businesses don’t need that much to get a great start. Seriously, you might really never need to spend thousands of dollars on these things – take it step by step and see how things go.

One of the first things you should do, before branding, is BRAND IDENTITY… this is the process of figuring out what your target market is, what you are best at, and where you want to put your focus. Your target market should not be everyone. You should specifically define your target market and focus your business on that. That doesn’t mean all of your clients/customers are going to fit into your definition, but it means you’re more likely to enjoy what you’re doing.

OK, this is a shot in the dark but apparently getting access to the Microsoft AdCenter API (for managing our PPC campaign) has been harder than I thought it would be - if anybody out there knows how I can get an invite, please let me know. We are already advertising, but want to be able to add a lot more campaigns without having to login and do it by hand.

By the way, we have tried the bulk uploader (using an Excel file) but it still requires a little babysitting which is why we would prefer API access.

Robert Scoble just finished a great blog post on why he thinks Twitter is worth much more than people give it credit for.  He cites its ease of use for businesses and open nature as an easy way for businesses to target customers.  He and I had a conversation about this on FriendFeed, and while I still feel Facebook has the upper-hand here, it definitely has to open up a little more in order to be completely on par with Twitter.  However, there is a side of Facebook businesses aren’t yet fully utilizing and they need to start – it’s a wealth of information and user connections at their hands if they just embrace it.  The part of Facebook businesses are completely missing is Facebook Connect.

In my conversation with Robert we were discussing whether Facebook or Twitter had a better UI.  I think our conversation may have been moot, since in the end the part of Twitter most people see is via a desktop client of some sort.  Many of us are seeing trends via TweetDeck, or friend lists via Seesmic and similar.  Or perhaps we’re searching via PeopleBrowsr. There is a majority group of people out there that simply aren’t aware of the basic UI Twitter has on its own Twitter.com website.  Yet at the same time I don’t think developers are coming anywhere near close enough to what they could be embracing with the Facebook API for desktop clients – there is so much developers are missing when it comes to Facebook!

Regardless, even if you take the plain-Jane websites and compare them with each other, Twitter, while much more open and easier to find archives than Facebook out of the box, pales in comparison to Facebook when you compare UIs.  Facebook has threaded conversations.  Facebook has friend lists, and you can sort your feeds by friend lists.  You can completely control who sees what you post on Facebook.  You can’t do any of that with Twitter.  Facebook has likes.  While Twitter has favorites, I can always do the same on Facebook and “share” a link or similar to my profile and anyone can always reference it later under my links.  I can separate my links, videos, and photos (which appear in-line, not via 3rd-party service) from my main status update stream if I want to.  You can view just my links, just my videos, or just my photos, and for links even download the stream as RSS.  You can do real groups in Facebook – on Twitter you have to hack it with hashtags.  You can organize true events in Facebook, and store a full profile about yourself or even your business.  Keep in mind that most of this is also available to your business as well.  It seems to me that the ONLY thing Facebook lacks is a decent way to search (while they do have that too, it’s still limited), and a fully open version of the site that businesses can easily embrace like they do Twitter. It would seem Twitter still has a lot to catch up to.  Yes, that’s a big thing, but much more simple to put in place than all the other things I mentioned above.

Now, back to my original point about Facebook Connect.  On FriendFeed Robert said to me, “I’ve talked with dozens of businesses and they all say Facebook isn’t working as well for them.”  I believe he’s seeing that.  I think the majority of businesses are using Facebook wrong though.  Even though I say that I also know, consult, and talk to dozens of businesses in which Facebook is working for them.  Some businesses are using it right.  Ask Digg how they’ve done since integrating Facebook.  Ask Huffington Post how well they’re doing now that they’ve integrated Facebook.  What about FriendFeed’s integration?  Heck, even my SocialToo saw a huge spike since we integrated SocialToo Status into our product line, utilizing Facebook.  Or what about Geni, or iLike, or Flixter?  All these businesses were still businesses before Facebook.  Facebook is what has given them an incredible boost since their integration though.

Businesses aren’t integrating Facebook Connect as they should.  Here’s what Facebook Connect is – with just about 3 lines of HTML-like code (it’s called XFBML in Facebook terms) and a small snippet of Javascript that you can basically just copy and paste, you can have your site’s users logging into your website (didn’t have a log in before?  Well now you do, along with your very own social network of 300 million people.) with hardly any effort whatsoever.

Now, let’s get a little deeper.  Facebook Connect, with the help and just a few hours time of one of your own coders, can take your existing database of users and find out how many of them are already Facebook users.  My bet is most of them are (remember, there are near 300 million Facebook users on the planet!).  Now you can prompt those users to begin telling their friends about your brand to their closest friends and relatives, using just the tools Facebook provides, ALL ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE. Oh, and even better – unlike Twitter, your users never, ever, leave your website when authenticating with Facebook. You simply won’t get that intimacy between your brand and customers on Twitter.

Have social features already on your website?  Look at what Digg is doing with Facebook Connect.  Every single user that joins Digg through Facebook Connect, or associates their account with a Facebook account for the first time through Facebook Connect, AUTOMATICALLY has their Facebook Friends who have also done the same added as friends on Digg.com as well.  Automatically, with no work on your users’ part, you can associate your users with their already existing social graph on Facebook, let them communicate, send stuff to their wall, their friends’ walls, and more, all simply via the Facebook API, ON YOUR OWN WEBSITE.

Twitter pales in comparison to what Facebook can do for businesses. The majority of businesses are just using Facebook wrong.  If you manage a business’s marketing or brand management campaign and only have a Facebook Page, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG.  The power of Facebook isn’t about Facebook itself, but about the vast set of APIs Facebook is providing to you and your business to get your brand into the most valuable place of all – that intimate setting between a customer and their close friends and family.  You can’t do that with Twitter.  You can with Facebook.  This is why if Twitter is worth $5 billion, Facebook is worth at least 2 or 3 or more times that. Your business needs to get in and use Facebook right if you’re going to stay ahead of the game.

Robert Scoble is giving Mark Zuckerberg free consulting (his points of which I agree with) – I hope this bit of free consulting for your business was helpful too.  If your business is to see even more value than they are on Twitter, you MUST be using Facebook Connect. That is the way you embrace Facebook as a business.  Contact me if you need any more help than this. As a software developer on both networks, this is why I got into Facebook – it’s why I’m still bullish about the network.

Now to get back to coding…

Fifty-one beats per minute (51bpm). As of this week, that’s my resting heart rate low, and in fact, it’s my lowest heart rate since I was in college more years ago than I want to admit.

Although I’ve always been a pretty active guy for most of my life, I finally decided about a month ago to stop fighting reality — the reality that I have a runner’s body, a runner’s physique. Heck, when I got married nearly 28 years ago, I was 5′10″ and weighed 125 lbs. Seriously! Looking at my old pictures, I now see that I was almost as skinny/emaciated as a Kenyan marathon runner. And back in 1981 when I got married, I was training to run in the Deseret News Marathon, so guess what? Yup. I looked like a marathoner!

Today, I average about 175 lbs., but I now acknowledge I’m not a weight lifter, I’m never gonna be a mixed martial artist or hold a black belt, and although I like cycling, I’m really not a cycling enthusiast per sé.

No, when it comes to getting and staying in shape, my best bet is running. And for as long as I can lace up the shoes and put one foot in front of the other without my knees giving out, I’ve decided that I’m gonna run.

So . . . four weeks ago I started on this new journey. My initial goal? Four to six days a week (depending upon what’s going on in my life), morning runs preferred, starting at 20 minutes per outing Week 1 when I walked for five minutes then jogged for five minutes, walked for five, ran for five.

I’m now running 30 minutes at a time, and I’ve already run four times this week. And although I’m slow as molasses (let’s just say I have yet to break a 10-minute mile on this go-round), I am getting faster and my overall fitness level is improving. How do I know?

Well, 51bpm is part of that answer. During my runs I find that I’m in the range of 160 beats per minute, sometimes a little higher, sometimes a little lower. But five minutes after running my heart rate drops down to the 110bpm range, and within 15 to 20 minutes after running, I’m down in the 80bpm to 70bpm range.

I’m also seeing improvements in general muscle tone, as well as on the bathroom scales, as I’m noticing my weight creaping down closer and closer to the 170 lb. range.

My Running Background

My first experience with running came when I was in high school and got my arm twisted by a neighbor to join the wrestling team. He was good at wrestling; I never was.

But since wrestling involved up to three rounds per match and potentially 9 straight minutes of non-stop grappling, our coach felt that one of the best ways to build aerobic endurance was running. Unfortunately, San Carlos High School was perched halfway up the coastal mountain range bordering San Carlos, so we ran cross country-like routes all over the place, both on streets and on trails, typically 3-4 miles at a pop, five days a week. Soon, I hated running.

My next real experience with running was while attending Brigham Young University when I decided in early 1981 that it would be fun to run a marathon. Yeah, 26.2 miles.

Truth of the matter was I got to the point that I actually enjoyed running. At the height of my training, I was running six days a week and alternating between running six to eight miles per day. And somewhere around mile four to mile five, the endorphins kicked in and I felt like I could just run and run. That was cool!

About five days before July 24th(race day, a state holiday here in Utah known as Pioneer Day), I ran an 18-mile carbohydrate depletion run during the middle of the day with no problems on one of the hottest days of the year. I even attended a Preference Dance that evening with my soon-to-be wife, Allisha. Again, no problems.

However, I did not appreciate how bowed the roads were leading up to and back down from Little Mountain in Salt Lake City, and during the race I ran on the right edge of the road heading up the Little Mountain road, which meant my right foot/ankle were constantly rolling from left to right under growing pressure. About six miles into the marathon I began to develop serious pain in my right foot, pain that only grew the further I ran. After 16 miles I could barely walk and dropped out of the race, only to ingloriously throw-up near the finish line. How embarrassing!

The only redeeming point after the fact was having a doctor examine my x-rays and state authoritatively that I had suffered a stress fracture and to stop running for at least a month. Unfortunately, I did and I haven’t been a consistent runner ever since.

Running and Marketing Comparisons

So what does all of this have to do with marketing, let alone The Betty Factor? Let’s see if I can draw some parallels.

1.     You have to start.

The only way to gain the benefits of running is to actually start running, placing one foot in front of the other. The same is true of marketing (whatever aspect of the marketing mix you’re considering). If you never begin a marketing campaign, you can NEVER gain the benefits of a marketing campaign. Sounds simple, and it is, but it’s still true.

2.     Start with simple goals.

My first short-term goal was being able to run 20 minutes without stopping (or having a heart attack). This was a very specific and measurable goal, and I’ve now achieved this goal. I also wanted to lower my resting heart rate. That meant starting out knowing what my resting heart rate was before I started running (it was about 70bpm). Today, my first thing in the morning best resting bpm is 51 beats per minute. In marketing, you also need to set goals/objectives. I recommend little goals to start with, then advancing from there.

3.     Monitor/analyze your progress.

Improvement in running is IMPOSSIBLE unless you are taking and monitoring key measurements: heart rate while running, resting heart rate, time per mile, etc. The same is true in marketing. It is impossible to know if you are improving or reaching your goals/objectives if you to NOT measure and analyze your progress.

4.     Some progress is still progress.

Sometimes when running, improvements take time, sometimes more time than we expected or want. That’s okay: some progress is better than none. Besides, some progress is still progress. The same is also true in marketing — it’s often hard to see immediate progress or the progress may not match expected outcomes. If this is the case,

• give your marketing time to work,
• be patient, and
• evaluate what you’re doing and the results you’re achieving, and if necessary, modify your marketing regimen.

5.     Modifying your efforts can improve results.

As alluded to in #4 above, sometimes you may find that you’ve hit a plateau when running or exercising. The same might also be true in your marketing efforts. If this is the case, try modifying your efforts to help you break through to the next level of results. For example, if you find that you’ve hit a wall and can’t run any faster, try some speed work.

For example, run the same distance or same length of time, but twice a week, run normal speed for a set distance or time, then run at a faster rate for the same distance or time, and alternate this effort throughout your workout. Done consistently, this farklet (or “speed play”) training will help boost your overall ability to process oxygen or maximum aerobic capacity (aka VO2 Max). Playing around with your marketing mix, always testing new variables to see if a higher result can be generated is a great way to maximize marketing outputs.

6.     Extend/expand your goals as you achieve success.

As mentioned above, I’m now at 30 minutes per run. But my new goal is 45 minutes per run. And once I achieve that goal, I’ll set a new running goal altogether. Newer goals that expand the reach/potential of a marketing program are critical for success.

7.     Go public with your efforts.

As a social media maven, I’ve been quite public about my efforts at running. I’ve also found great support from within my networks for my efforts to get back into running. I’ve also entered my first race in nearly 30 years, the 2009 BYU Homecoming Cougar Run, a 5K (five-kilometer race), something that I’m also being public about, both here and in other forums. The point is this: Telling other people, including competitors what it is you’re doing is a good thing as it publicly forces you to acknowledge your goals/objectives/efforts. It also gives you a venue for disclosing why you’re doing what you’re doing.  

Conclusion

Naturally there are other comparisons that can be drawn between running and marketing, but I suspect these will suffice for now.

My final thought on the subject is this: If you’re not exercising today, start immediately, even if it’s only taking a walk around the block once a week (for starters). Twenty minutes per day for three days a week is a great starter program.

Ergo, consider a similar approach when it comes to marketing and the marketing communications mix.

There are plenty of good pieces on the Internet about how to build a good board of advisors.  Go ahead, Google them.  There is one super post about why you shouldn’t bother to build an advisory board by the smart guys at 37Signals.  Essentially, they’re saying that too many supposedly critical things are myths that keep you from building the company and products.  But what if someone has approached you to be an advisor to his company?  There aren’t very many pieces about how to be a good advisor.  So how do you provide value as an advisor?

1. Don’t be a professional advisor.  Don’t go seeking to sit on a bunch of advisory boards.  Few things deserve your time and attention so be selective – get involved only with companies where you have unique insight and passion to contribute.  And I mean don’t be a professional advisor. If you ask for cash compensation, you’re a problem and not a solution, especially for young startups with limited resources.  If the management team desperately wants to compensate you, accept a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of equity in stock options that vest over time.  Don’t be a resource drain.

2. Get out of the way.  Too many advisors want to get actively involved in a company’s operations and tell management what to do.  The management team should know more about its business than you do and if it doesn’t – you’ll never be an effective advisor for the company anyway.  Being an advisor should never be an exercise in ego.  If you have to insert yourself to feel valuable, you’re the wrong guy.  Only get your hands dirty if the management team asks you to dive in.

3. Challenge convention.  Unlike members of a formal board of directors, you as an advisor cannot be held liable for the company’s actions.  This allows you to be more objective and give uncensored advice.  This freedom is probably the most enjoyable thing about being an advisor.  You don’t have to have all the right answers, you just need to be gutsy enough to question everything the company does and how it goes about doing it.  This is where you can have the most impact on the company by helping management to consider different strategies.  Focus on strategy, not tactics.

4. Open up your network generously.  You’ve spent your whole career cultivating valuable relationships.  Connect the company to potential investors, partners, and customers.  Of that list, customers rank supreme.  Investors and partners will show up if the company has a growing customer base.  But potential customers could care less who a company’s investors or partners are.  So if you know someone or some organization who could use the company’s products or services, be the leadoff hitter on the sales team.  But hold the management team to high standards.  Make sure milestones are being met and progress is being made before you haphazardly make introductions.  Let management know that if they do their job, you’ll be their biggest evangelist.

5. Get out of the way.  Did I mention that already?  This time what I mean is to know when the company has outgrown your expertise and ability to contribute.  There is a lifecycle to all engagements and you don’t want to be the person to outlast your welcome and usefulness.

This weekend, I took my wife, Allisha, to go see the new movie, Julie & Julia.

This fun, funny, heart-warming and life-reaffirming film covers the yearlong journey of discovery young wife Julie Powell takes as she sets out to produce in 365 days the 536 recipes found in Julia Child’s cooking tome: Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

For the record, it was a completely delightful movie (yeah, not necessarily a very manly adjective to use to describe a film, but apropos nonetheless), and I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

What I especially liked about Julie & Julia was that I walked out of the theatre feeling energized and hopeful about life and convinced more than ever that I made a wonderful decision nearly 28 years ago in choosing to marry the young lady who has since become my best friend.

Julie & Julia also reminded me once again of the importance of the career-choosing message I learned from Mormon educator and philosopher, Truman Madsen, when he delivered a brown bag luncheon presentation in the Wilkinson Center at Brigham Young University many, many years ago:

1. Choose something you’re good at.
2. Choose something you enjoy.
3. Choose a career you can support your family with while making a difference in the world.

Turns out my best grades as a directionless sophomore/junior were in Mass Communications, which also happened to be the classes I enjoyed the most. And now, close to 30 years later, I am deep into a career that spans more than 25 years and regularly finds me helping clients of all types successfully

• deploy public relations campaigns,
• unleash social media programs,
• support stock valuations, and
• sell more goods and services.

As it turns out, I ab-so-lute-ly love what I do! And I am blessed beyond measure by the good Lord above with several gifts that make me quite good at this career.

Which brings me to the point of today’s blog post.

It’s hard to imagine, but it’s now been more than four months (April 11, 2009) since I’ve written anything new on The Betty Factor. Four months! UGH!

Naturally, April 11 is just about the same time that Politis Communications lost two clients and saw a third client cut its PR budget by two-thirds. Yes, it was awful. Although we had been holding on through the toughest economic downturn that this country has seen since the Great Depression, it’s been a hard couple of months, culminating with the tough decision to let three employees at the end of June (2 full-time and 1 part-time).

As a result, I’ve focused almost all of my professional efforts of late on pursuing prospective new clients. And I’m grateful to say that we’ve been fortunate to land a couple of new projects recently and appear to be on the verge of landing several contracts as well, which is great!

Nevertheless, to circle back to Julie & Julia for a moment, watching that movie also reminded me how much I love writing. It’s been in my blood ever since I was in the 3rd Grade and wrote a take-off on Creature from the Black Lagoon, that campy 1954 SciFi/Horror flick I first watched in the early 60s.

I’ve also been reminded recently how much I enjoy getting down in the trenches to work with clients, craft strategic plans, roll out campaigns, pitch story ideas to journalists, and see concepts become reality.

That said, I feel re-energized and I am recommitting to write regularly here within the four digital walls of TheBettyFactor.com.

I don’t plan to write every day, and I suspect I will mostly be writing after hours or on the weekends, but I am going to write. And I’m going to do so about my professional passions, especially as it relates to the premise of The Betty Factor — identifying and writing about the best and worst examples I can find from all areas of marketing and marketing communications.

That’s it. Thanks for reading.

And if you haven’t seen it yet, I do recommend Julie & Julia.

David

P.S.  Anyone out there looking for great PR, IR and/or marketing communications consulting and/or services, feel free to contact me at dpolitis@politis.com, 801-523-3730 xt. 11, or 801-556-8184(cell). I’d love to visit. 

In an effort to centralize my online identity, I launched BlakeSnow.com this week. The site features state of the art HTML, some fancy javascript animation, and an enlarged photo of my shapely cranium. I’ll still be blogging under my pseudonym here, and maintain other websites as well, but this will serve as an entry point [...]

My first impression of Seth Godin upon meeting him was that he is an extraordinarily efficient person.  You wouldn’t think of a “creative” as efficient in the sense that a supply chain manager, hamburger flipper, accountant, or the Octomom are efficient.  But Seth conducted interviews with about thirty candidates for the SAMBA program in under three hours.  He made up his mind on who fit perfectly soon after and, it turns out, he picked an amazing group.

How amazing? That remains to be seen. Everyone in the group was so remarkable, I felt like the straggler who needed to keep up, especially when falling countless times skate skiing.  Of the SAMBA crew, I was probably the least familiar with Seth’s ideas.

My talented SAMBA fellows are all immensely grateful to Seth for the time and energy he gifted to us.  We all want to thank him in some way.  But I think the greatest thanks we can give to a teacher who is so generous is to take what he taught us, practice it in the real world, change the world for the better, and succeed beyond his wildest imagination.  Then we can extend the change he initiated by teaching others.  So we’ll see just how amazing we can be.

Here are a few lessons that made the greatest change in me and they have little to do with an MBA:

Be Brave.  You can start off a little clueless.  You can even start off as a complete outsider.  You can lack the resources others more fortunate start out with.  But you must have courage – this is the foundation of it all.  Everything else can be made up for right?

Be Purposeful.  Some might say this is the foundation, even more important than bravery.  Maybe.  I think that if you’re brave and you’re willing to venture out and explore, you’ll find your purpose eventually.  So instead of sitting there trying to come up with the perfect and grand purpose for your life, get a little gumption and get in the mix!  You’ll find your purpose if you’re looking for it and doing something.

Seek Change.  Change yourself.  Change others.  Change the world.  Change is painful but necessary for growth.  Real, substantive change has the potential to create the greatest value.  This is good advice whether you’re a college senior, corporate warrior, first-time entrepreneur, business mogul, parent, or spouse.  Back to the foundation – serious change requires bravery and purpose.

Be Generous.  This depends on if you fundamentally believe that generosity produces value and surplus.  Does generosity produce economic value and surplus?  Does generosity produce reputation value and surplus?  Does generosity produce influence value and surplus?  We believe it does – but you’d have to practice it to find out for yourself.

Be Persuasive.  How? Learn to tell good stories. Paint stories that capture the imagination because they are artistic, empathetic, emotional, exciting, incredible, overwhelming, unique, unexpected.  Use your new-found persuasion powers to sell your vision, your product, your service, your point of view.  Wield this superpower to cause massive change.

Keep Promises.  We saw Seth do this every single day.  We live in a world where intangible assets are often far more valuable than material assets.  One of these intangible assets is reputation or credit, before it became primarily a financial measurement.  If you’re striving to increase your value as a person, keep your promises – especially when it becomes uncomfortable to do so.

My Promise on the six principles above: Regardless of what you’re trying to achieve in any field of endeavor you choose to engage yourself, you’ll increase your chances of success exponentially if you practice the six principles above.  You already knew that deep inside.

Bonus Grab Bag!  Here are some of the more tactical things we learned relevant to today’s changing business environment. Should satisfy the MBA in all of us.  You’ll notice that they all tie back to the big principles:

- Recognize the difference between a freelancer and an entrepreneur.  Either one works but you should figure out which you want to be.  This ties back to purpose.

- You can generate a lot of business ideas if you try.  The trick is in choosing the right one for yourself.  Seeking change and having a purpose will help here.

- When writing a business plan, work backwards from success with concrete steps.  Concrete steps imply some level of control, that you can exert influence on.  No miracles allowed.  Each step should have more than one pathway to success.  This should not turn into a gigantic document.  Business plans that seek change have a greater chance to succeed.

- Marketing is a whole new game.  The old ways don’t work much anymore.  The power belongs to the people.  You cannot simply buy attention anymore.  You have to build permission assets, tribes, communities, ideas that spread.  Learn to tell great stories and your ability to persuade will help you thrive in new marketing.

- When working in a team, be first to spread the credit for success around.  When failure happens, be first to take responsibility.  If this doesn’t feel natural, you’re not doing it right.  It may feel painful in the short term but you’re building a long term reputation that everyone will want to associate with in the future.  This is related to keeping promises and being generous. 

- Design is the last great competitive advantage.  You can design everything – not just your logo or website.  You can design the way your customers interact with the company.  You can design the way talent interacts within the company.  You can design your company culture.  This is more art than science and that’s why it’ll remain a source of competitive advantage for a long while.  It is also much harder than it looks, which is another reason why it works and is so valuable.  Design is persuasive.

- When writing press releases, make it more about the customers than about your own company.  Most press releases are ego-stroking exercises for company executives.  Don’t be that executive.  Why is your release important to the market?  Not why is it important to your company.  Check persuasion.

- Pricing tells a story!  It is a signaling strategy that is a marketing discipline.  You don’t have to just mark your costs up by 100%-200% as a rote formula.  Don’t price in the middle of the market.  Be the most expensive luxurious offering or be the cheapest most disposable solution.  Interestingly, this requires bravery to not price with your crowd of competitors.

- Sales has changed little.  It is still mostly an emotional process.  You simply need to learn to close.  Always be opening; always be closing.  Sales isn’t the tough slimy racket it is often portrayed.  When what you have to offer can improve someone’s personal or business life, you have the noble duty to change his life!  Every venture needs good salespeople and good sales processes.  Be persuasive and brave.

Seth, thank you for your time and attention.  I am truly grateful for the special experience and change of the last six months.  I am also grateful for the people who gifted us SAMBA fellows their attention by reading our posts and sending encouraging words.  I am going to set out to give thanks to Seth now by doing something remarkable.  I hope everyone reading this will choose to do something remarkable too.  This is only the beginning.

We all know that almost every business has peak times and low times. The great thing about doing SEO and online marketing is that you can very easily find the peak seasons for searches and traffic in your industry.  Once you have that information, you can act on it to keep your business rocking all year long.

Discovering Search Trends

So how do you find what the high and low times are in your industry?  Here are a couple of free tools you can use:

1- Google AdWords Keyword Tool

There are so many things you can use this tool for, and here’s another one! As an example, I did a search for the word ‘camping.’ To see the trends choose “Show Search Volume Trends” from the drop-down menu that says “Show/Hide Columns” and you’ll see something like this:

As you can see, there is a definite high and low time for these camping keywords. The peaks are from May to July, and the valleys are from November to January. Now that we know what the low times are, we can look for other keywords that have a higher trend during those months.

2- Google Trends

This is another great tool from Google. This takes the idea of discovering trends a little further by looking at several years’ worth of data. Google Trends lets you compare multiple keywords side-by-side on the same graph.  Let’s take a look at some of the camping words from above:

As you can see, the data is pretty consistent from year to year for the keywords ‘camping sites’, ‘camping site’, and ‘camping gear’ - they all peak and valley at the same time each year.

If I ran a camping site, I’d want to do something to compensate for these down times.  Let’s take a look at the relationship between ‘camping gear’ and ‘winter camping’:

I know it’s no surprise there is an inverse relationship between these two keywords. It would be advantageous to find some winter camping products, create pages around them, and then optimize for winter-based keywords. Although winter keywords don’t obtain as much traffic as summer camping keywords, they are more likely to convert during winter months and help keep revenues more consistent.

Learning from Trends and Taking Action

Use trends to look for keywords with less dramatic trends and more consistent traffic, or see what the popular terminology is for your industry. You’ll often find that over time one term grows more popular than another.  If you want to see an example of this, check out this graph: SEO vs. Search Engine Optimization.

Chances are your business has high and low times of business and traffic. Take some time to understand when valleys generally occur, so you can compensate. Look for ways to keep your traffic as consistent as possible. Watch your analytics data to see which keywords are converting at different times of the year as well.

By making a few adjustments and watching trends you can have your business making more consistent money all year long!

I’ve heard people make references to Geoffrey A. Moore’s Crossing the CHASM book for several years now but had’t read it until this past week. 

Moore’s book is a must-read for any IT company trying to launch a new product.  Although the concepts in the book are not novel (so admit’s Moore) the book brings a vocabulary and metaphoric dictionary to the readers allowing marketing groups, investors, and techies alike to communicate about the playing field in a proactive manner.

Moore discusses the importance of delivering continuous innovation, instead if discontinuous innovation.  Our new innovations need to help people do what they are already doing better, and not force them to abruptly change something that kinda works for something that they are not sure about that may possibly work better.

Moore introduces the Technology Adoption LifeCycle, complete with five categories of market segments.  He discusses how to market in succession to each group:

1. Innovators
2. Early Adopters
3. Early Majority
4. Late Majority
5. Laggards 

Finally, Moore introduces some business concepts you may have heard of by now, like the bowling alley, the tornado, and the fault line.

If you haven’t heard of these, then you need to get reading!

Mike J. Berry
www.RedRockResearch.com

I’m publishing my first book next month.  It’s about software quality management.

Quality management, that is, in the sense of improving software processes and production support methods, not about ‘how to test software.’

I include overviews of the four formal quality models: CMMI, Six Sigma, and ISO 90003, and ITIL.  I outline how to create a quality system within an organization and I discuss common fixtures it should have.

I talk about checklists, measurements, purpose, accountability, and continuous improvement.

So now I want your help.  Tell me what else I should include in a book about managing quality in an IT/Software Development/Production Support environment.

Also, suggest some titles.  Thanks in advance!

Mike J. Berry
www.RedRockResearch.com
 

When GoTryThis came out a few years ago I was very skeptical.

Now, I use it almost every day in my business.

Here’s a short list of why I use it:

• It keeps all my links in one place
• I never have to find my affiliate links for any product. GoTryThis has it for me
• I get great stats about what is working and what isn’t
• My GUYS in the Philippines can use it for me. They join aff programs, and I don’t have to know anything about it…except that my link is in GoTryThis. No thinking on my part.
• SUPER simple split testing

I got John Reel on a phone call talking about this.

It’s a piece of software you SHOULD be using in your business.

GoTryThis.com

Recently, while attending the ‘09 Agile Roots conference in Salt Lake City, UT, Alistair Cockburn–the keynote speaker–referenced Miyamoto Musashi’s 16th-century book called The Book of Five Rings. 

I like Asian philosophy (and swords and such) so I picked up the book and read it.  The book was written in 1643 by an undefeated Japanese samurai master who was so effective he was rumoured to have spent the latter part of his career entering sword-fights purposely without a weapon.  Although meant as a battlefield manual, the book has gained popularity as a handbook for conducting business in the 21st century.

The book was translated into English by Thomas Cleary at some point and the edition I read was published in 2005.   Improperly named “The Book of Five Rings,” the book is actually a compilation of five scrolls.

The Earth Scroll: Musashi talks about how a straight path levels the contours of the Earth and how various occupations provide life-improving principles.  He talks about observing patterns and learning from them.  Certainly a great primer for any business trying to get across the chasm.

The Water Scroll: Here Musashi talks about how water conforms to the shape of its container.  He suggests a separation of one’s inward mind against it’s outward posture, maintaining that one’s control over one’s mind must not be relinquished to outward circumstances.  He translates these philosophies into about 80 pages of sword fighting techniques.  An interesting modern parallel is found in Jim Collins book, Good to Great, where he talks about how the most successful companies are able to say ‘No’ and not be influenced by immediate but non-strategic opportunities.

The Fire Scroll: As with any book written by a 16th century samurai master, you’d expect a core discussion on combat strategy.   The fire scroll is full of combat strategies, positioning, and pre-emptive theory.  Very interesting.  Did anyone notice how Apple’s announcement of the latest iPhone came about 1 day after the Palm Pre phone was officially launched–killing it’s market blitz?  No coincidence there.

The Wind Scroll: The wind scroll contains a directive to study and be aware of your opponents techniques.  Translated into business speak, this means one should always study ones competitors.  Be aware of new offerings, partnerships, markets, etc. that they persue.  Emphasis is placed on observing rhythms and strategically harmonizing, or dis-harmonizing with them as appropriate.

Finally, The Emptiness Scroll:  This scroll discusses the value of escaping personal biases.  Emphasis is placed on not lingering on past situations and being able to adjust quickly to new scenarios. 

Overall I found this book ‘enlightening’ to read.  If you like metaphors and inferences, or sword-fighting, then you will enjoy this book. 

Mike J. Berry
www.RedRockResearch.com

“A generalist is someone who knows less and less about more and more until he knows nothing about everything, while a specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less until he knows everything about nothing.”

In some fields, neurosurgery for example, nothing short of a specialist will do. There’s a reason we have a Surgeon General and not “surgeon generalists” in the United States—nobody would trust a surgeon who claims, “I’m better than average at cutting into and sewing up pretty much any body part. I even do animals.” Paging Doctor Frankenstein.

In other areas, like SEO, the tables are completely turned. The role of an SEO specialist doesn’t feel very specialized some days when I feel like anybody could perform the same SEO tasks I do, because let’s be frank—SEO isn’t brain surgery. Then I remember I’m compensated not for my depth of concentrated training, but for my breadth of skill. I’m trained to nimbly jump from one tactic to the next, seamlessly creating videos for one client one minute, doing conversion optimization for another client the next, and blogging at the end of the day. I’ve wondered whether they should change my job title to SEO generalist.

True SEO specialists definitely exist. They do only on-site and off-site optimization. They do keyword research. They build links. They generally have very boring jobs—the kind that robots will be doing soon. I get the impression that these “specialists” desperately want to convince the world that the search industry is a specialist niche, when it isn’t. Until we understand this, we’ll see the same topics being rehashed again and again in SEO blog posts and presentations while conferences like SMX Advanced will be “buzzing” with revelatory changes in myopic areas like PageRank sculpting.

I suspect that the SEO pool isn’t deep enough for a bunch of specialists. It’s not deep enough to make ultra-specialization practical or profitable (or I’m not seeing how brain surgeon-level SEO expertise translates into markedly improved rankings).

Even while SEO spending is on the rise, SEO-only companies may find it increasingly difficult to make a buck, particularly when every hosting, web design, or marketing company outside the search realm is finding it profitable and easy to expand into the SEO market – GoDaddy.com being the recent scary reminder.

So how do SEO companies take a generalist rather than a specialist approach to SEO? You have to be willing to do more for your clients.

We’re an SEO company, yes, but when an indirect opportunity comes along for our clients to get a traffic or rank boost, we draw on our acquired set of skills that includes advertising, public relations, web design, social media, etc., as if we were a full-service web marketing firm. For instance, my boss just spent time on the phone finding geo-targeted newspapers willing to publish one client’s press release and drive traffic to his site—something you would be hard-pressed to find at an SEO-only company.

This kind of Swiss Army knife approach keeps us creative enough to cater to specific client needs. It’s our version of an above-the-rim milkshake with the cherry on top. As a result, we get happier clients and higher rankings because we build better links and drive more targeted traffic.

My opinion is obviously that generalists are better equipped to accomplish the objectives associated with SEO than their specialist counterparts are, as surprising as that may be. Generalists of the SEO.com breed have enough specialization to get and maintain top search placement for competitive keywords, so what does that say about SEO-only specialists?

Search engine optimizers don’t need the education of a brain surgeon to be the best–just an expanded multi-functional skill set, which ultimately proves to be far more impactful and exciting for the client, the company, and employees like me.

Following is an email I got from one of my GUYS detailing the promotion methods we use for different types of websites. You can use this for your GUYS.

This is also very instructive for you in terms of what you should be doing for your websites. What my guys do is awesome.

I added the parts in CAPITALS.

---

Sites Handled by [NAME]:
[THESE ARE SITES USING METHODS LIKE THE MINI-SITE FORMULA OR PNE OR OTHER SIMILAR METHODS. THESE ARE NOT SITES WE SPEND A LOT OF TIME ON. THEY ARE OFTEN EXPERIMENTAL OR SMALL/AUTOMATED SITES.
THESE SITES GET BUILT ONCE, PROMOTED ONCE, AND MAYBE UPDATED/PROMOTED EVERY 6 MONTHS AFTER THAT. I DON'T EXPECT ANY OF THESE SITES TO MAKE ME A LOT OF MONEY.]

Method of promotion:

Directory Submission
Submission to ezinearticles

---

Sites handles by [NAME]:

[THESE ARE SITES THAT I EXPECT TO DO REASONABLY WELL ($500-$3000/MONTH). SOME OF THESE ARE USING THE NPC METHOD. THEY ARE SITES WE SPEND MORE TIME ON, BUT THEY HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO THE HUGE STAGE YET (SOME OF THESE WILL MOVE UP TO THE LAST CATEGORY OF SITES).
THESE SITES GET PROMOTED EVERY MONTH, MAYBE MORE OFTEN THAN THAT.]

Method of promotion:

site: www.xxxxxxxxxxx.com (this one is the best of this type of site that we have)
Directory Submission
Article Submission
Bookmarking
Yahoo Answers
Mininet
Blog Comment
Forum

other sites:
Submission to Ezinearticles
Little bit of Yahoo Answers and Forum posting

---

Sites handle by [NAME]:

[THESE ARE OUR BIG SITES. THEY ARE SITES THAT WE EXPECT TO CONTRIBUTE OVER $5K/MONTH TO THE BUSINESS. SOME OF THESE ARE USING THE NPC METHOD. OTHERS ARE LARGE AFFILIATE SITES. THEY'RE STILL COMPLETELY AUTOMATED (from my point of view) BUT WE GIVE THEM MORE ATTENTION THAN ANY OF THE OTHERS.
THESE GET PROMOTED AT LEAST WEEKLY.]

Method of Promotion:
Directory Submission (done)
Article Submission
Mininet
Forum
Bookmarking (occasionally)
One-way link from blogs: Content spooling, 1waylinks, free traffic system
A little bit of Blog comment and yahoo answers.

---

Here are my thoughts. (THIS PART STILL WRITTEN BY MY GUY)

For me, the best method in building backlinks are article marketing and blogs. Search engines love content. Articles and blogs are often updated and SE’s love them. It also looks very natural in the eyes of the SE’s.

For direct traffic, yahoo answers and video marketing are the best strategy.

Forum posting (with signature link) and blog comment can deliver both backlink and traffic as long as it is posted on relevant sites. But the problem is, there are only few forum sites related to the topics. And for blog comments, most of the blogs are moderated so woudl it take time for your comment to be posted. Most blogs now have nofollow attributes on comments and Google does not follow them anymore (as posted to their webmaster support website). But other search engines may handle this attribute differently.

In the case of [NAME], as she handles so many websites, I think Free traffic System can really help her. I am still looking on how this system works. But I think this can make linkbuilding easy and effective. For me, directory submission is good if the website is new. But if it is already indexed by SE, it is not that important exept if the directory is an authority site such as Dmoz and Yahoo Dir.

This is what I’ve been doing:

New site:
Directory Submission
Bookmarking
Yahoo answers
Blog Comment

If the site is indexed:
Article Submission
One-way links from blogs
(this will help the website increase its ranking the natural way)

If there is a sudden drop on the rankings or as the site gets more established:
Forum Posting to dofollow forum sites
One-way links from blogs.
(this can give instant backlink to the site because it does not need approval and review)

For maintenance:
Combination of all these methods
Video marketing for traffic

Not bad as a website marketing plan that we came up with over time. Here are some of my thoughts for your benefit (I sent this to him):

• I want to use 3waylinks.net in addition to 1waylinks.net on all the sites. Both can be used just once on the experimental sites, but should be used regularly on our good sites. Both are very good.
• I haven’t used the free traffic system, so I don’t know how effective it is. My GUY seems to think it’s good so I told him to buy it.
• I think we should be doing video submissions for all sites. Experimental sites can have just 1 video submitted. Better sites should have it done regularly.
• I wouldn’t worry too much about the nofollow attribute thing
  on blogs. I don’t think google discounts it as much as they say they
  do. I think it’s still valid to post comments on those sites.
• We use Unique Article Wizard for article marketing.
• We use Traffic Geyser for video marketing

If you (the reader) have other systems you use to promote your sites, please post in the comments.

Training for YOUR GUYS for all the methods mentioned above are available as a member of ReplaceMyself.com. The training is designed to teach YOUR GUYS how to do what MY GUYS are doing for me.