From the business.gov web site: Online Advertising Law An old cartoon in the New Yorker showed two dogs in front of a computer, and had the caption “On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog.” The inherent anonymity of the Internet has fostered a number of shady advertising and marketing practices, such as unsolicited e-mail [...]

Some choice bits on marketing from the SBA web site. 100+ Marketing Ideas Marketing is all about satisfying customer needs. The following represents a comprehensive list of marketing ideas; use it to help better understand customer needs and ways to satisfy those needs. Never let a day pass without engaging in at least one marketing [...]

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is generally a waste of time in my opinion.  There are a few legitimate firms, but for the most part, it’s a group of individuals trying to game search engines, or worse just take your money. Here’s what I do for SEO: I include all the page elements that are important [...]

I’m not a big fan of joint ventures.  If I have to partner, I’d rather it be limited or ending at some point.  I find that if I have to split profits with anyone, my motivation immediately decreases.

As a follow up to my post on automating sales with an auto responder, here are 11 ways to annoy people with spammy email practices: Don’t let me opt-out of your list. This is actually a legal issue. If you don’t have an opt-out method, you’re going to get shut down. Find a service provider [...]

I’m a big fan of sequential auto responders (the automated email programs that send a pre-written set of messages over a period of time). I like them because they automate part of the sales process and automation is good. I use them to great effect on sites like my ITAR Compliance Training web site.  For [...]

A friend of mine and a fantastic in-person salesman shared this gem with me the other day. Hopefully he won’t mind if I publish it. Next time you get a booth at a trade show or similar and you’re doing the put your business card in a fishbowl giveaway, try this: When people walk up [...]

I’m not the world’s greatest salesperson by any means, but one thing I’ve learned is that people want to do business with people who are already successful. For the most part, they view your business relationship as a stepping stone to something they want to achieve. There’s nothing wrong with this self-preservation style of thinking, [...]

When you’re doing network marketing, you might hear the phrase “giver’s gain” being thrown around. Basically, this is the idea that people will respond to your referrals and goodwill in kind by sending you referrals. There’s a lot of truth to it, and it’s definitely something I believe in. But what happens when you have [...]