It's a dull little post to illustrate a simple enough point. But for some reason - and I assume it's the chocolate - a few people have contacted me about the chocolate fountain hire guy (that's his link).

Funny how some things just seem to resonate with people even though you or I might not think they're interesting.

Have a good weekend.

Brendon

And that means we have lots of different opportunities to write something that resonates with our reader.

Michelle Gaby has a refrigerated transport business near our offices and read my blog post about the 8 Business Lessons from the Governor's Hooker.

Because that article made Michelle sit up and take notice it was enough to have her call us.

You need just one thing to resonate with your target audience enough to generate a lead.

Putting things out in the marketplace - like blog entires, newsletters, AdWords, flyers, direct mail and more - are things we can all do to try and make that all important connection to the prospect.

Are you doing enough?

Regards

Brendon

I'll let you know how we get on.

Cheers

Brendon

That's 4,500 km in 30 days through some pretty tough country.

We're riding to support the great work of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Australia.

We'd love any support you can provide and have set up a donation page over at the ride web site: www.perthtoparadise.com.au.

Thanks.

Brendon

Get yourself a publicist.

Here's one I prepared earlier!

This is Chelsea Mclean - Chelsea does mainly book publicity now (she's in the middle of a year off right at this minute).

Chelsea got us more:

* credibility
* work
* money

than you can poke a stick at.

A publicist gets you thinking differently. You start to see the angles in what you're doing.

The credibility some decent PR provides you is invaluable.

We had Chelsea on a retainer and our retainer would have been something like $20 in for every $ 1 spent with her.

Find someone young, hungry and who understands tech stuff.

Cheers

Brendon

So I'll be doing that from now on.

Cheers

Brendon

This site automatically finds these sites that mention this site and inserts in part of the comments.

So, of course, sneaky spammers link to this site, this site picks up that link and publishes it in the comments and they have another link to their site.

Sneaky!

Anyway, we've removed them all now.

Cheers

Brendon

It was a really easy site to do, there's been no haggling over prices and the client essentially leaves us to it.

You see, he recognises it's not his area of expertise.
Also, he trusts me not to over charge him.

He trusts me with these 2 very important things because he's my brother.....and believe me when I say he's getting a good deal.

It's so easy for a web developer when you can trust him. For us (as web developers) it takes a huge amount of work away because there's less time spent justify and reporting things (not that that is always a bad thing).

But the point is this, try and give your web developer some trust and you'll end up with a far better end result.

Cheers

Brendon

It's an excellent example of a site with some solid products including reading info and teaching reading tips.

But it hasn't hit the heights or created the awareness it might have achieved.

As you know, I'm a firm believer in marketing always wins.

If you have 100 similar products, the best marketed product will win.

Our challenge is to get the learning to read site in front of the right customers.

Are you getting in front of your customers?

Cheers

Brendon

My son was searching for hammocks yesterday and came across this hammock web site.

Because it came up # 1 for "outdoor hammocks" he assumed it was the best outdoor hammock - even though I explained to him that it only meant that Google ranks it at # 1 in terms of being relevant for that search.

I guess the lesson is you need to be # 1 for branding and credibility reasons as well as the visitors it generates.

Cheers

Brendon

5 years ago the then manager of this business asked us to do some search engine work on the site.

This person then proceeded to abuse us - as in was very, very verbally aggressive - when she didn't show up at # 1 on Google for a very competitive keyword.

We asked her not to be our client anymore.......in the nicest possible way :o)

2. 4 years ago the business was sold and the new manager contacted us to do about $1,000 worth of general upkeep on the site.

3. 2 years ago the business was sold and the next manager contacted us for more web site work.

4. The next manager came with his own web development people and we were moved aside.

5. The business was sold again and today the newest manager called for us to take care of the site.

The One And Only Lesson

The 1 and only lesson here is this: Never, ever burn your bridges.

Keep plugging away as things come around again and again.

Cheers

Brendon

This guy started getting more and more enquiries from his web site and started wondering why he had a hugely expensive shopfront with staff and enormous overheads.

So he closed everything down and rented a little factory to build his pool tables by himself.

Australian Pool Tables Sales

We're doing some work with an Australian business who is doing the same thing - building the best pool tables in Australia and being able to sell them at a huge discount to retailers because they simply don't have the same sort of overheads.

Except he has trouble finding envelopes big enough to post his pool tables in!

Makes a ton of sense.

Can your business do the same thing?

Cheers

Brendon

He does great packages where they do everything from start to finish, including place the media.

Tell him I sent you and he'll buy me a beer!

Cheers

Brendon

He absolutely loves management rights and is a true expert in them.

We also starting doing a little work on Jennifer's saving money site. I love sites like Jennifer's where she has put a tremendous amount of effort into the site.

We also launched a brain exercise site called Brain Life Trust, as well as a pretty simple New Zealand house architect site.

That's 4 sites finished and launched today.

Every single client came to us from referrals from happy clients. Every single one.

And very important, every single one of these clients has been delightful to work with.

Referrals Matter

Taking great care of your current customers is the best marketing you can do. Doing that alone will generate you more and more business each and every day.

Cheers

Brendon

As a web developer we focus on things like search enginess, pay per click campaigns, social media and the like.

One of the sites we run sells a product called Calendulis Plus Cream - a cream for eczema treatment.

The impact of getting a story on a current affairs TV show outweights by an enormous amount, just about anything else.

Should we add PR to the mix when marketing products like Calendulis Plus?

The answer is a big yes!