Everyone is a Marketer brings you some of the most popular advice, suggestions and tips I have shared with you in the past year all together in one convenient spot for you to download.  Within the 22 chapters, you will be able to learn really simple marketing techniques that anybody can use.  I do not care if you are starting out on day one of your business or day 141, I have suggestions and help here that can do anybody who reads it some good.

Go learn more about the eBook and download it (in the handy PDF format).

• Get the Free Marketing eBook for Beginners!

I would also love to hear your feedback too.  So if you have any reviews, thoughts or your own marketing tips you would like to pass along – be sure to send them my way.  I might even publish them here for the world to see.  This holiday season, I know we are all looking to save a buck or two – so let me give you this eBook for free.  The only thing I ask in return is you let me know what you thought of it once you’ve unlocked all the marketing secrets that are within the pages.

Making the right connections in business is a big part of the marketing game.  You don’t need to have a multi-million dollar advertising campaign.  You don’t even have to get a $2 advertising campaign going.  One of the best marketing techniques out there is to simple stick your foot in the door.  Make friends with people in businesses that can help you succeed.

Not to get into some circle of life mumbo-jumbo, but we are all connected. What you need to do is to find people and make friends that can help you out with your own marketing needs. Think of this as old school social network marketing.

As an example – lets say you are an artist.  To broaden your reach and to give yourself chances to get your artwork published or bought elsewhere, you might become friends with the guy who runs the art exhibit at the local museum.  You might become friends with local interior decorators to see if you can get your artwork picked up as something people would like to hang in their homes.  There are so many different professions out there that are interconnected, you really can’t throw a stone without hitting somebody in the back of the head who can help you.  You just have to sometimes think outside of the box.

The power of having a good social network of your own to lean upon  can do wonders for anybody’s marketing needs.  Not only can your friends help you with your business needs, you might also be able to return the favor, as well.

The most important thing you can do is set yourself apart for the crowd.  You might still do the same thing, however doing it in your own way. For example, there are a lot of different ways you can climb a mountain.  Just because 99.9% of the population wants to use hiking boots and rope doesn’t mean you should toss out your idea of creating the world’s biggest ladder.  Your still climbing that mountain – you just found a way to do it that will draw a little more attention than the rest.

Now, since we all will not be climbing a mountain today – lets bring my example down to size.  Everybody is getting an account on Twitter these days to post about news, their thoughts on life, and more.  Now, truth be told – you need to stay "with the times" and get yourself on Twitter.  You might handle your Twitter account a little differently though, that will bring you more attention.

You could for example:

• Handle the Twitter account in the persona of your company mascot
• Repost positive feedback your company has gotten, to share with the world
• Post fun facts about your genre of business

I could go on and on. As discussing as it might sound – there are several different ways to skin this cat, and it is up to you to find the most creative way.

So remember, don’t be afraid to do things differently.  You are not really taking a different path – you are just finding a new and different way to go through the path, to draw more attention to yourself.

If you have been working in any online capacity these days, you have more than likely run into a few social media douchebags.  Now, not saying that everybody trying to earn a buck helping companies find their way in the social networking landscape are this way – but many are, and it is comically annoying.

At a former job, I was told that one of my replacements being brought in was somebody who had a degree in social marketing.  The thought of this gave me a chuckle, because for one thing – that sounds like a degree you would get out of a Cracker Jacks box.  The other thing that was slightly annoying about the thought was that this person was probably going to get more attention because of it – even though, I probably knew just as much about Twitter and Facebook as they did. 

One great website that pokes fun at the idea of being a social media douchebag is socialmediadouchebag.net.  I would highly encourage everybody to check it out, to get a good idea at how crazy the world of social media experts is these days. 

Anybody who knows me knows I am a big believer in teaching yourself, and there are enough resources to learn from out there that nobody really needs to hire somebody that has "social media expert" on their business card. 

You tell me though, are social media marketing experts this generation’s version of a search engine optimization snake oil salesmen or do you think it is a real business?

You can do great things, but if nobody knows – did you really do them at all?  After reading a recent interview with Richard Branson, on building a brand for your business, something he said really made me think.

Here is the quote from the British industrialist:

The key to improving sales is to make sure your business or product stands out in the marketplace. We have always tried to ensure that Virgin products are innovative, that they offer good value and that there’s a great attitude about service. When you have those basics right, you need to make sure people know about your business: Too many great businesses remain "well-kept" secrets for too long and never get the attention they need to grow and thrive.

You have to let people know about your business, and what it is you are doing that they might be interested in knowing about. This might seem like an obvious point to make, but sometimes features are overlooked because one man’s boring detail is another man’s press release worthy note.

I want you to make a list of features your product or company might have that are unique. For example, I could say some of the differences Mitchelaneous has with other blogs out there are:

• I am a one man team, doing the designing, writing, and editing
• This blog has been around for six years, which is pretty good if you count it in blog years
• I cover a wide variety of geeky topics that tickle my fancy

Now, let us take a look at this quickly made list.  You might have known I did all of the work on this website and that I write about a geeky variety of topics.  You might not know that I have been blogging here since the year 2004.  So if I was to market one of those three facts to new users, it would be the fact that I am a better established blog than most, because I have been around longer.

So go out there and create some attention for yourself today.  Spread the word about something that is unique to your business, website or project – and make sure people know about it.

As a business, you never want to sit on your hands, so take a look at these four different aggressive marketing strategies and you tell me, which one might benefit your needs. You can break these marketing strategies into four types, you have reactive marketing, analyzer marketing, defender marketing and prospector marketing.

Reactive Marketing

When you are a reactor, you have no real proactive strategy.  You might just react to events as they occur, and have no real big plan to grow or take care of your business.  You meet each challenge as you come to it – and is not really that effective of a business strategy. Now, you don’t want to over plan your business development, but you should have some idea of what you want to do and need to do when you are in charge or anything out there.

Analyzer Marketing

People who are into analyzer marketing, might be defined as the Goldilocks of our story.  They are really the best middle ground when you compare our next two strategies – defensive marketing and prospector marketing.  Somebody who is more of an analyzer might go after that new way to branch out the business, but they will have solid facts as to why this idea is a good one.  Rather than dive into untested new markets to see if they will stick, the analyzer marketing technique might be more sly, as they gradually expand into an existing market while still keeping a good balance of products in their portfolio.

Defender Marketing

In defensive marketing, you take less risks – but you do work hard to keep your current customer base happy. In our current economic position in the world today – this strategy might be the best one to follow. When you are in defensive marketing, you are putting a wall up around your business to keep the customers or clients you have happy so they don’t start looking for a way out.  You will not see a great boom in business using this technique, but as time goes by more people will come to check you out through word of mouth advertising from current clients.

Prospector Marketing

When you here prospector, you might think of an old hillbilly man looking for gold out in “those there hills” or something to that effect.  That is about the best comparison you can use, for this basic business idea. Prospectors are very aggressive when it comes to looking for ways to expand the business – and often dive into several new markets, just to see what sticks.  They might launch five new products, but only one really becomes popular.  To be able to become a prospector when marketing, you need to have a large base of cash or find funding very easily.  As time has moved on, businesses have become more conservative with the money they have – so the prospector marketing strategy has been on the decline.

Each of these marketing strategies are aggressive in their own way, and have their own purpose or usefulness when the time comes.  It is up to you to decide which might help the marketing of your own brand, products or ideas out there today.

Over on the Web Hosting Show, I have been talking all week long about our good ‘ol departed friend, Geocities.  After looking back at what went wrong, and what was or was not done, one thing can be said for certain.  The main reason Geocities fell is because they failed to innovate. 

If you too want to follow the rise and fall of this free hosting giant, check out these articles and be sure to download the accompanying podcast too.

A Lesson in Geocities History

You might have heard of Geocities in passing, however if you are new to the Web, or the way things once were – all this concern about a free hosting service might be a little confusing.  So I figured, what better way to pay tribute to the web host that once was, than to give you a history lesson in Geocities.

Saving Geocities for Future Generations

In an effort to save the content that was on Geocities, a group calling themselves the Archive Team is working hard to save the Web that way it once was.  Time to pack away the animated gifs, blinking text, and web rings into their own individual boxes, so that someday we can look back what was once considered, “cool” in web site design.

Alternatives to Geocities Hosting

With the word that Geocities would be closing, “sometime in 2009” many of the Geocities users are looking for other places to host their content.  Even though Geocities is closing the door on it’s free hosting, there are still many free hosting alternatives to Geocities.

Why Did Geocities Fail?

The reasons as to why Yahoo! dropped the ball with Geocities will be a great debate over the next year or so.  However, I feel the main reason Geocities ended up fading off into the sunset is that Yahoo failed to evolve the product into what people needed.

For more web hosting podcasts, interviews, tips and more be sure to check out WebHostingShow.com.  It is tons of fun!

Marketing in general has really always excited me, so I thought it might be a good idea to talk with somebody who does this as their day to day business. Daryl Kennedy is the VP of Operations over at TechWyse Internet Marketing. When approached about the interview – my first thoughts were “Whoo hoo! Now I can pick the brain of somebody who really understands this Internet marking stuff” and I have to say I was not disappointed.

How did you find yourself in the Internet marketing world? Most people on the web want to get to the top themselves in popularity. You guys specialize in helping other people make a name for themselves.

Daryl: Getting into the Internet marketing world for myself was quite by accident. I have always been a resourceful person. I have always enjoyed efficiency and understanding new technology. After being in the business of developing web sites, I decided it would be far more resourceful to learn and understand the newer search engine phenomena then hit the streets cold calling which was far more traditional.

After studying search engines for about 6 months, I quickly found that by following search engine principles I could get our own company on the first page of Google, Yahoo! and MSN rather easily. Ironically, many other companies across North America and especially Toronto, Canada began noticing themselves! Since this was clearly a way for companies to begin to generate revenue they began asking me to help them in the same way.

The rest is history. We have branched out now to become a full service Internet marketing company with more than 50 people in 2 different locations. I have never been an egocentric person, I simply enjoy the Internet marketing industry, and even further than that, understanding how to build and analyze different companies marketing efforts as effectively as possible.

Internet marking is a very large tent. At TechWyse, what are some of the services you really specialize in?

Daryl: It has sure developed into a ‘very large tent!’. Put as simply as possible; our goal is to cultivate, promote and measure the marketing efforts of companies. Our focus is on developing a full marketing strategies which include the following process:

• Planning & Measurement – gaining an understanding of the company goals and building a blueprint to develop a successful online marketing campaign.
• Creative Development – developing an online persona that matches and promotes the ultimate goal. Having an effective online brand and conversion friendly design ensures that all the traffic we get your site converts at a higher rate.
• Promotion – the successful launch of previously developed Internet marketing campaign, which may include anything from organic optimization, pay per click, email marketing, Facebook advertising and other social media utilities.
• Analysis – by launching an effective analytics program we can now analyze every facet of a company’s marketing plan.

It is not as focused as it once was, but the truth is that it’s essential to help companies grow!

What is the one marketing tip you see overlooked the most? Such as you see web site after web site and say, “Oh my gosh – why are they not doing this?”

Daryl: This one is easy Mitch; Companies invariably, almost always come to us wanting to promote and build traffic to the corporate web site without first looking in their own yard to make sure it’s as inviting as possible. This is why myself and the entire TechWyse team always discuss the importance of web site conversion or put more simply – what is the ultimate goal of your web site. Figure that out, and develop accordingly. By doing so we can maximize the efficiency of your marketing dollars.

Does it make you mad to see the “easy” offers to rise your search engine rankings? You know the ones that have 101 tips and promise to get you to the top of Google for any keyword as long as you pay $69.99 for their ten page ebook?

Daryl: Hah! You hit the nail on the head with that one. I find it rather comical that even we receive the bulk emails from companies that can get us on the top of Google within 24 hours! My rule of thumb is that if it sounds too good to be true — it probably is. Most of these tactics are those that prey on those that do not know otherwise. Over the last few years, however, I have watched the public grow wiser to this.

Having said all of this, it is definitely possible to get ranked at the top of search engines if you follow a proper plan. Internet marketing done right still means not only the cheapest cost per acquisition than any other marketing strategy but also the most measurable.

My biggest piece of advice for those that do not who to choose; Do some research on the company. Type in the company name into the search engine and see what else comes up. Ask for testimonials and ask those people what exactly the company has done for them. Pay attention to the details; even simple things like collateral, site design mean a lot in this business!

How do you deal with the clients that say, “I want to be at the top of Google for the keyword ‘muffin’ tomorrow!”?

Daryl: There are several different questions to ask to answer properly. It is firstly important to discover if the word “muffin” will get the company the most targeted type of visitor as possible. In this case, if you are selling a recipe book, for example, wouldn’t “muffin recipe’s” be more targeted? Or what if you make muffins in Toronto and want people to come to your muffin store? Why not focus on “Muffins Toronto?”

In the end, there are some instances where not using a long tail strategy is best. In that case it is possible to rank the highest for the word “muffins.” If this is the case, it is very important to build a campaign that effectively engages the major search engines to the point that you are the most relevant search when someone types it in. It usually comes down to having a wealth of content, and also something that is unique that people will reference online to improve your own link popularity.

Give me a solid argument as to why somebody reading this interview should invest in TechWyse and its Internet marketing and analytics services?

Daryl: I am the type of person to outwardly promote why you should use TechWyse services. What I do take great pride in however, is that our company does focus on capturing the entire purpose to your online marketing campaign. While getting results is important, it is just important effectively measure campaigns for results. There certainly are a handful of companies in the world today that do this, but the truth is this is still such a new industry, that you still see a lot of pretenders that take advantage of many lack of knowledge.

Our company is an avid supporter of Google products because this is still the mecca of search. We also put a great deal of emphasis on delivering effective, measurable campaigns that you and your account manager at TechWyse can work together on implementing successfully.

The final thing that I feel speaks volumes about TechWyse is the bandwidth that we have. When companies come to us, they have a group of more than 50 individuals dedicated to their own special area in Internet marketing. Very important!

Thanks Mitch, for the opportunity to speak on your blog. It has been a pleasure answering your pointed questions. I enjoy reading your blog. Keep up the good work!

Final thoughts: Many thanks back at Daryl, and be sure to tech out TechWyse for all of your Internet marketing needs.  They are an awesome company that seems to be more than happy to do anything in the world for you when it comes to online marketing.

Web hosting disk space and bandwidth offers are so large these days it is getting ridiculous web hosts have to do something new. You can always lower the price – so why not make fast food’s equivalent to the web hosting world? That is Micro web hosting 101.

Now who would want to use a stripped down and less expensive hosting plan? Well you will need to toss in a few more perks. Maybe an easy to use page editor or a template system. The target for these will not be Joe down the street who has years of experience in coding HTML, PHP and working with MySQL databases. The target is Jane, who has never done a web site before and wants something simple and quick so that she can type in the content, hit save and she never has to look at the site again for six months.

So is Micro hosting a bad thing? No. It is creating yet another business model that will make the web hosts money and the customers of the web host happy.

Yes, corporate blogs and bloggers should be more egotistical and talk more about themselves when there is nothing else left to say.

Here are a few suggestions to get you started:

1. Tell the story of how you came to be. Have you told your rags to riches story yet? Let people how the company started up and how it has grown since then.

2. Pitch one of your products and let me know how real people can make use of it. Don’t pitch it to me as a salesman, give it to me as a person to person conversation and win me over on why it might be for me or somebody that I might know.

3. Who are you? You might also do a type of “profile” post where you tell people more about the folks behind the scene. Let me know who worker number 1,356 is and why he is so important to the day to day business. (and if he’s not, time to give him the pink slip!)

As you can see, when talking about one’s self you could really go on and on. Have any other suggestions as far as ideas go for more corporate writing spot on the Web?