I came into Internet marketing from two businesses that couldn't have been more different to the work that I do today. Continue Reading

Whether you have already started your online business or are still just thinking about it, ignoring reality can be an effective strategy for getting to where you want to be. Successful businesspeople are visionaries - they see themselves and their businesses a certain (successful) way, long before they have actually achieved any kind of success. You've heard the saying "Fake it 'til you make it"? That's what we're talking about here. Here are some ways... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Joseph A Michelli Ph.D.) Last week we talked about the importance of having a customer-centric business approach. But how exactly do you go about becoming a business like The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company that adds value though service excellence and desired experience? I take my clients through a very systematic process with delivery of that process adapted to the needs of their business. Typically this journey begins with an honest assessment of... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Tim Golen) Nothing is worse than spending months promoting and preparing for a launch, only to have the anti-climactic experience of your site not loading at the big moment. Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Joseph A. Michelli, Ph.D) I love buying things online! What I am not fond of is the service, or should I say the lack of service, I often receive after the sale. The great speaker and human development expert Earl Nightingale once noted, "Our rewards will always be in exact proportion to our service." However, with the world markets injured by those who focused more on profiting themselves than serving the... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor David Nour) In my last several prospective client meetings, a consistent conversation has centered on the need for a social media policy. Whether you work for a progressive organization or a conservative, risk-adverse one, it seems that everyone has an opinion on the best approach. Here are some prevailing camps: Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Andrew Albritton) Last week we talked about getting your Google AdWords account set up and the overall importance of SEM. This week we'll focus on optimization. Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Joel Ownby) Advertisers and business owners are starting to understand the value in direct response mobile marketing because the response rates are too high to ignore. TextCastLive is a new service that has taken the rules taught to us by direct marketing mediums like e-mail autoresponder systems and direct mail and applied them to SMS text message marketing to provide a robust, platform-independent, scalable, enterprise-class mobile marketing solution. At the highest... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Mark Widawer) With so many people getting into online marketing as a way to avoid having a J-O-B, they're wondering exactly what kind of online career they should get into. When they start thinking about ebooks, they often think that maybe it's too late to get into ebook marketing, or that there aren't any good topics left to write about, or that they're not smart enough or expert enough to write... Continue Reading

(Written by guest contributor Sarah Jane Griesemer) These days, there is a long list of ways to avoid having to talk to someone in person: email, Facebook, Twitter, chat, blogs, and text messages are just a few. With all these alternative methods of communication, why bother with real-life meetings at all? The answer is that face-to-face meetings and interviews are still the single best way to get to know someone reliably, quickly, and in such... Continue Reading

WARNING: Today's post is going to rattle cages and put a spotlight on a potentially dark side of Internet marketing. Yeah, I'm probably going to tick some people off. That's life. I'm more concerned with speaking the truth. This is #2 in a series called The Truth About Internet Marketing. Part one was called "The Long Form Sales Letter. For some time it has been suspected that there is a "secret cabal" of Internet marketers... Continue Reading

I have been doing contract development since 2003, and I have learned a lot of lessons in that time. Some lessons are from success stories, and some are from disasters. By putting them all together I hope to give you some insight on hiring a developer and ultimately becoming successful on the Internet. Continue Reading

A couple of years ago in 2007, Google, IBM, and others set out on a large-scale cloud computing project. By mid-2008, Gartner, from Gartner.com, saw an opportunity for cloud computing to "shape the relationship among consumers of IT services, those who use IT services, and those who sell them," and observed that "organizations are switching from company-owned hardware and software assets to per-use, service-based models" so that the "projected shift to cloud computing... Continue Reading

"All aboard!" shouts the conductor, alerting the passengers that the train is getting ready to pull out of the station. If you don't have your ticket and know where you are going, you'd better get it sorted out fast. After all, there are many tracks that lead out from the station. And while you might travel miles and miles down one track, you could end up finding out that you've traveled miles and miles... Continue Reading