Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

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A few months ago I exited my local Wal-Mart and found a “gift” wedged between my driver side mirror and the door of my Dodge Dakota pick-up truck. It was a small gray box with a business card sticking out. The card was from Marc Caviglia of Don Weir’s Reno Dodge. What was the gift? A mini tool-box for my truck:

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Over the past ten years or so the Internet has busted the doors of “free stuff” wide open. More and more we are able to get cool things for absolutely no charge. Blogging platforms such as wordpress are free. Wordpress addons are free. Many iPhone apps are free. Blogs and newspapers provide free content online. You can download TV shows and songs for free (legally or not.) And you can connect with your friends for free via IM, MySpace, facebook, twitter, and a host of other free social networking platforms. I could go on.

The era of “there’s no such thing as a free ride” is coming to an end. So many things are free now days I often wonder how anybody makes money anymore, especially competitors trying to sell what someone else gives away.

But free works. This has been true long before the web was invented.

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When was the last time you ran a search for your own, or your company name on Google? If you’re interested in how you rank amongst your peers, you might find it interesting to check it out. Do you monitor your reputation?

Searching a name as uncommon as Stoney deGeyter, you may not be surprised to find him in all of the top ten results, but each and every one of the top one hundred results are either articles Stoney has written himself or are about him. I stopped checking after page 10.

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Unlike many in our industry I’m not against what some consider annoying forms of advertising and marketing. I don’t have a problem with cold calling, I don’t think all unsolicited emails are spam and I don’t think there is anything wrong with direct mail.

Many of these things are frowned upon in the SEO industry, and I understand why. It’s because there has been an abundance of “SEO” companies that engage in these methods, perform crappy service and ultimately rip people off. Every industry has its thieves. The ones in the SEO world have created a black mark that makes the entire industry look bad and has caused many in our industry to frown on legitimate forms of advertising.

Before I go any further, let me state I’m not for blind cold calling or email spamming. Good marketing via direct mail is highly targeted, not just sent to random addresses. The same holds true for cold calling and email marketing. Good and proper marketing rules must be followed if you want your business to succeed long term.

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Speed Dating Networking
Have you ever speed dated? I’ve been married long enough that I’ve not ever had the opportunityneed to attend a speed dating meeting, yet I’ve seen it on TV. (wow I feel like I just almost made a bad quote, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.”)

Last Night I attended Charity Speed Networking as part of Small Business Marketing: Unleashed and it was FUN. Honestly, if I were single, I may seriously consider speed dating if I was looking for someone with common interests.

Do you know how this works? Well let me tell you. We had one long row of tables, and along one side we had the “movers” and on the other side, the non moves. We were given three minutes to talk to the person across the table from us, and then the movers got up and moved down one seat to talk with the next person.

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Buying software is so 1999. I mean seriously, who wants to buck up and spend upwards of $500 on an office suite when you have bills to pay and lattes to drink. Plus, with everyone’s exciting New Year’s resolutions in full swing, saving money may be even more appealing. Enter the world of free web-based software and open source software. This list is obviously not comprehensive, nor authoritative, however, these ten programs are the ones I found most useful during 2007.

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Thanks to PubCon and the Sales and Marketing department of Treasure Island in Las Vegas, I was able to finally take in my first real production in Sin City last week – “Mystère” …for no cost at all.

This Cirque Du Soleil show has been creating an awe-inspiring visual spectacular for over 10 years. I found the quality and level of entertainment provided by the musicians, acrobats, dancers and those handling the staging and lights to be astounding. Mystère provided the opportunity to the viewer to interpret the performance in many ways. Was it is intended to share the potential of the individual as one makes her way through life…or was it all the dream of a small child?

Every act was unique and exotic in its own right, and all together the show left me breathless and dreamy. The longevity of the show itself proves that Mystère is a must-see attraction in Las Vegas, and I hope my personal praise encourages you to make this experience yours!

• Grip Your Readers With These 7 Knock-out Opening Sentences
• Five Common Paid Search Mistakes That Can Sink Your Campaign

• PPC Success in Five Steps
• The Importance of Images In Linkbait Articles
• 11 Link Usability Tips

I have survived Day 1 of the Search Engine Strategies 2007 conference … albeit on information overload. It isn’t really that there was so much information that it was overwhelming. Taken in small pieces everything is perfectly digestible. It’s when I over fill myself that I waddle away overloaded. All that aside, I have to say that my first day was pretty good. I attended 4 sessions and learned something new from each of them.

Stoney introduced Rob and me to some pretty fun people. Rob asked me how it felt to be going to dinner with 12 guys, and I said: “Popular.” I also felt quite popular with all the rubber necking our Pole Position Marketing team shirts caused. We were quite the collective object of many a heads turning and fingers pointing. You could read people’s lips Check out the cool shirts. I bet next year there will be impersonators.

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