Breaking the scams

I am fed up with watching people scam innocent companies/individuals and take hard earned cash for pointless, valueless internet marketing content and strategies that can be acquired for free. Do not part with your cash, please!

So, today, soandso is going to deliver their apparently unique content for free for the very last time. This is it. Pay now. Or forever lose the chance to benefit from this [supposed] internet marketing millionaire's fabled words.

Or cough, miss the chance, keep your money, learn the same old tosh tomorrow?

I'll let you into a secret. But it requires a little background first.

I was one of the very first people who got involved in this internet marketing world. When I started there were very few websites you could find without remembering a complex series of numbers (an IP address). Domain names were unheard of, email addresses needed 3 toilet rolls to write them down on, IRC and bulletin boards were the only place to be, and your phone bill was HUGE.

So, bearing in mind that I can almost guarantee YOU don't remember that world, let me share the secret.

Oh, and it's for free, but if you want I could put a big Paypal button here so you can part with your hard-earned money...No?!

In 16 years surfing the Net, I will honestly, hands on heart tell you that ****VERY LITTLE HAS CHANGED**. Just because someone is closing down some fabbo sounding opportunity [for you to part with your money] it does NOT mean that the info they are intending to share with you cannot a) be found elsewhere and b) won't be found again and be equally as relevant in 10 years time.

You may want help with your website, you may know you need to promote it but be struggling to understand how, you may be baffled by this interweb thingy, but you do NOT need to part with money before you know what you are doing.

Pay NO-ONE! The information you require is online. And for free.

Want help with your site? I have been helping people for free for 16 years

* in designing a website for their business - We'll get you online to better business wasn't a tagline borne of nothing!
* connecting their company to the outside world and even local communities, with wireless broadband and wifi, FiWi, satellite, and now fibre and FTTH
* helping companies to reach new and different audiences through books, blogs, audio, video, events, tweets, status updates, text/SMS, brochures, guerrilla marketing, you name it

There are very few ethical internet marketing companies. We all know each other. Looking for a recommendation for a company or SEO agency? Ask. Need advice on a proposal or pitch? Ask. Want to waste money? Go somewhere else.

I can't think of anything worse than watching a company burn money on a website design company who don't understand why keywords matter (and you surely don't or you would not have chosen that company) or spending money on PPC bids that could be easily dealt with using a little SEO.

If you want help with your website, please ask. Don't run around 5 different agencies until you know the questions to ask them.

Personally, I don't want your business as we are busy into 2011 so why not ask your questions here knowing we are unlikely to pitch for the job? There's no sales pitch here because, as the recession continues, it is amazing how many companies are throwing money at SEO and internet marketing. We are ***busy***.

Are you? Do you want to be? Do you want your website to deliver results for your company? Don't know where to start asking questions? All I can offer is the chance to ask, for free, an SEO and holistic marketing professional for an answer to your question. And then for you to benefit from other internet marketers viewpoints about your best choices and solutions - that's up to them to get involved!

It's free, you have nothing to lose, what SEO, PPC, internet marketing question would you most like an answer to?

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Wot economic recession?

I don't really do Christmas or shopping. But I am watching what is happening with the economy for my clients and my own business in 2009. So, I was more than a little surprised to see the queues, lack of bargains and spending mania going on today in Kendal. Not what I had heard on the BBC news....

Retailers in small market towns, such as Kendal, seem to have it made. It was blatantly obvious today that the ONLY companies with bargains, sales, reductions etc were the national companies who are reacting on a national policy basis. "The following items are to be marked down, the following signs need to go on the windows etc" And Woolworths, who of course have their very own problems with administration etc.

The local companies are retailing at full bore with very few reductions being offered. After all, they already have a good brand reputation locally or they wouldn't still be on the high street. Their customers will continue coming in through the door - sales signs or not.

Boots, Morrisons, Comet etc all had sale signs up. Yet, those were the sales staff who were quick to say, "The Boxing Day sales start in just 3 days. If it's not a present for Xmas Day, you might want to consider waiting because the price on that will come down."

I thought this was really interesting. Here in Cumbria, only one local company I know of has gone to the wall recently with the loss of 30+ jobs, but the local rumour mill has it that it is unrelated to any recession.

But no-one else seems to be really suffering yet. The drop in mortgage rates has helped those who have low average earnings, which is typical for rural areas such as ours, not hindered them. So, spending is rife not restricted. The poultry sale the other night at the auction mart saw fresh 6kg turkeys being sold between £32 and £40+, and geese anywhere up to £60. No going to Asda, for a packed crowd who jostled for the birds even though they were anywhere up to 5 times or so what the supermarkets have been knocking them out at.

Was it just down to quality and the knowledge they were well bred, locally? I think so. I also think there is an innate understanding of the blue pound in rural economies. (Oh, and ignore Wikipedia, which whilst coming up first on Google for the term "blue pound", is way off the mark).

Blue pound refers to a theory that if a pound coin were stained blue and its progress was observed, we would see how much of our money spent 'locally' was actually benefiting the local economy. If the paint comes off on each person's hands as they touch it within the local spending community, how many people will have their hands dyed blue before this pound coin leaves the community for a national or international corporate? For the vitality and ressurection of communities, this phenomenon is SO important. If all your money is going out of the local economy, it is called the leaky bucket syndrome. If it is staying within the economy, it is creating local jobs, giving local people money to spend, and it invigorates local communities.

Let me put this really simply: it keeps alive the place where you live, keeps your neighbours and yourself in work, it ensures the future of your community. Think about where your blue pound goes every single time you open your purse or wallet. Is that pound leaving where you live and going into the coffers of a large corporate who will not be spending their profits on your doorstep? Then, to be honest, you are helping to destroy your community.

So, to return to the main point of this post, where is the business and marketing lesson in this? It has to be:
if you have a good relationship with your customers because you provide a good product, at a good price, all year round, and great customer service, you can survive a recession. Especially if you don't follow the rest of the sheep and cut prices to attract more sales. Either your product is great and worth the money, or you have your pricing structure wrong!

We are likely to see a large number of retail redundancies and bankruptcies during 2009 in the High street according to many financial analysts.

This could well to prove to be a good thing for those looking to re-establish the High Street as their domain, and to take Britain's high streets from being the 'same shops everywhere, homogenous' crap that we have seen developing and endured in some towns.

IF some of the larger names start vanishing from the High Street, there is a fantastic opportunity for local companies and smaller chains to move in and deliver the goods where there is maximum footfall. Obviously, as an Internet marketer, I have to apply what I know from there to this process so here's my thoughts for 2009 on how to maximise on the potential changes in every High Street in Britain.

* Build your loyal customer base online
* Have a great website, lots of content and product choice
* Keep up to date with your customers - email newsletters, autoresponders, competitions and so on
* Deliver the BEST customer service that you possibly can - use live chat, VoIP, and CRM to track what your customers are saying and doing and thinking, AND buying from you!
* Make the most of opportunities to take those online customers with you into your locality eg through bricks and mortar shops, which should start coming up for rent
* BUT ONLY if you can't make as much of the opportunity online as offline ie do you need local trade to grow? (eg a butcher) If not, consider bricks and mortar very carefully. A website may be the better choice for you.
* Build an exit strategy for bricks and mortar - 2-3 years or so because many of those behind the big names will be back and may well take you on. Be ready to get out before you end up like Woolies.
* Combine all your offline marketing and customer loyalty schemes tightly through your online presence
* Automate everything you can - from backend processes through to PPC reporting. For instance, do not spend precious time walking from one end of a building to another when you could put a wireless network and a Netbook at the other end (for about £2-300) and save time. (I can give 20 case studies off the top of my head right now on this sort of stuff that businesses do without thinking about the savings they could make if they just used technology!)

If you run a small to medium sized business, or are in a rural area, or are confused or worried about how you can make the most of 2009, why not post here and we'll help you out? Many minds make light work.

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A licence to print money?

Every which way you look at the moment, Internet marketers are building communities. And charging their members a fortune to join, whilst creating whole new product ranges and future incomes for themselves.
For years, internet marketers have been raking in the cash. Some, not all. (Some of us aren't quite so captivated by the need for cash and just love our job and helping business people get online to better business. Although being paid in flapjack this week won't necessarily prove the way to dealing with the economic crisis, but it was delicious and worth it when I earned the recipe too!)

Internet marketers, IMHO, are usually a couple of steps behind, and probably a zero or two, the porn site owners. If you want a new strategy, technique or idea for promoting your business and making money, who better to look to than the successful people doing it?

So, one of the latest trends appears to be building communities of people (read: wannabes) and using them as a resource, whilst charging them for the privilege. The porn sites have been doing this for years with Reader's Wives etc, or so I am reliably informed.

OK, OK, I can hear the shouting from the wings already - by no means do I mean everyone. I'm generalising alright? Poetic licence and all that!

I'm also not saying that those members of a community are not getting their money's worth because I believe some of the sites are offering quality content, help, advice, networking opportunities, products etc. But let's face it, much of the value is being part of an active community.

And there are plenty of those out there, have been for years, which don't charge a bean to join, and offer cracking content, help, advice etc (in some cases better than the paid versions).

But what these marketers are doing seems to follow certain fairly good ground rules for making money. And I think the ground rules are valid for any business.

I remember being told years ago, when I worked for a niche publisher, that the reason their books were so expensive (ie 10 times the price of a paperback novel....for a paperback) was that you would never get a Rolex in a cereal packet. Rolex know the value of their product and price it accordingly. So did this publisher, and by putting a high value on it, they were viewed, rightly, as a quality product.

So, ground rule 1: VALUE YOUR PRODUCT HIGHLY and price it accordingly

BUT, completely opposed to that view, these guys (the IM crew) are also offering ridiculously cheap products (as OTOs, or even freebies) that seem like real value for money. And that I suspect hits that psychological trigger in so many people, a human trait perhaps, that just LURVS a bargain. Go into any supermarket and you will see 2 for 1 offers, tempting bargains by the door or till etc. And the Tescos and Walmarts of this world know ALL the tricks, don't they?!

Ground rule 2: FREE or nearly FREE wins customers every time. They just can't help themselves.

Then there is the involvement factor. People love to be asked their opinion, view of the world or a specific topic, and to get interactive in discussions, heated arguments etc etc. And most importantly, in a world where people are increasingly isolated from their real world neighbours that need to belong, to be part of a community. many businesses fail to ask their customers to get involved, or make it very difficult.

Ground rule 3: Don't just listen to your customers. Actively involve them. Use their ideas, and get them talking to each other as well as to you.

And that last sentence contains a critical factor that I suspect most of us don't fully make the most of.

Use their ideas. The new IM communities are asking people what they want to know about, and then creating infoproducts, videos etc to meet those needs. And those new ebooks, videos etc become part of the product range - either loss leaders to bring in more paying subscribers, part of the monthly content required to keep members engaged and paying, or new pay for products. Who needs R&D teams when you get all the new ideas you want for nowt?

Ground rule 4: Talk to, listen to and plagiarise from your customers. And not just the happy ones. It may be that Mr Angry has got a valid complaint, the solution to which could be just what your company needs.

I've got more to come, but that'll do for now. Sweltering in an abnormally warm Cumbrian night and enough is enough!!

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