tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20714379734860432912011-11-27T17:31:20.483-07:00Helping Entrepreneurs Design Build Grow Market Leading CompaniesJohn Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.comBlogger241100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-4781962338597296112011-01-16T22:57:00.007-07:002011-01-16T23:01:15.506-07:00

No matter how advanced or innovative your offer, your dreams of growth may go unrealized by way of assumption. Why? As entrepreneurs we're often so eager to start selling our innovations, we jump right to promotion and advertising with a set of killer assumptions. Our marketing often flounders or fails as a result. We Assume Consumer Relevance We make the mistake that potential clients

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-41786823131909662202010-10-01T03:20:00.001-06:002010-10-06T18:16:58.667-06:00

Every week for the past 8 weeks I have been in a conversation with a writer, a designer or a small business owner about what books to read to get up to speed on Internet Marketing. That is a tall order for sure. There are far too many topics to do justice to the entirety of Internet Marketing. However, having a grasp of the fundamentals across the core disciplines is all that most people need to

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-12167982677916917522010-05-23T20:27:00.010-06:002010-05-23T20:31:07.551-06:00

As a marketing consultant who works with entrepreneurs on start-ups and business growth initiatives, I see the same core problems repeatedly. The problems are not technical or related to specific products or services. The problems are more fundamental, being based in leadership and planning. The problems are linear and cumulative too, meaning their implications compound or are amplified

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-61446616638137728022010-05-14T11:32:00.004-06:002010-05-21T06:33:12.190-06:00

Social media and local search are an attractive website alternative for contractors and small business owners The Trouble With Websites For the last 10 years getting your business on-line with a website was a rite of passage for business owners. As with many such rites, surviving a painful and expensive website birthing process was just part of the ordeal. To make matters worse, the market has

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-79259905980997767582010-04-26T16:04:00.000-06:002010-04-26T16:04:07.752-06:00

Accrue Performance Marketing is hiring. While sharing my goals and challenges in hiring key people with a colleague, he told me "he would not even consider hiring anyone without first completing a Kolbe Assessment". I had never heard of Kolbe but I have a lot of confidence in my friend so I looked into it. I began by completed the Kolbe A survey on myself. Over the years I have completed many

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-83849962868656987352010-02-19T11:13:00.008-07:002010-02-19T11:22:06.146-07:00

I first read Spin Selling by Neil Rackham in 1999. Why blog about it now? Because SPIN Selling continues to be the book I recommend most often for professionals looking to increase their sales effectiveness. Although this book may not be the newest book on sales (it was first published in 1988) it continues to be the most relevant. I find it the most relevant because it addresses the most common

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-72375519272075205542010-02-10T09:03:00.004-07:002010-02-10T09:13:44.860-07:00

I’ve had occasion to recommend Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath several times in the last few weeks. I am also in the process of reviewing resume’s for a new position I am trying to hire for, so Strengths Finder is obviously on my mind. I first read this book about 2 years ago and was very impressed, recommending it to at least 10 of my colleagues and buying it for several family members.

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-38440534236842918222010-01-31T15:22:00.008-07:002010-01-31T15:33:44.477-07:00

With video marketing becoming so popular, more affordable and favoured by search engines, you may be considering jumping onto the video band wagon, I know I am. With YouTube having become the undisputed winner in the massive on-line video space if you are considering video marketing, you need to be learning more about YouTube. In the last ten years I was involved in only three video projects,

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-12571184576619989852010-01-25T15:17:00.004-07:002010-01-25T15:22:02.127-07:00

Twitter is a how-to manual for anyone interested in learning the practical in’s and out’s of Twitter. I wish I had read this book when I first started with Twitter. It would have saved me a lot of time and effort. If I had read this book first I doubt I would have read any other books on Twitter. Needless to say I liked this book and will definitely add it to my “refer to clients” list. Paul

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-70595895444056327462010-01-03T17:35:00.000-07:002010-01-03T17:35:44.346-07:00

I’ve had Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch on my reading list for 3 years and I finally got around to reading it over the holidays. I help entrepreneurs grow market leading companies in my marketing consulting and business coaching practice, so I am always looking for good books to recommend to entrepreneurs.  The process that Duct Tape Marketing outlines is the closest match to what my

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-33668891075370685112009-12-28T17:18:00.008-07:002009-12-30T15:57:45.404-07:00

Over the Christmas Break I read ProBlogger: Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett and Wiley Publishing, 2008. While I’ve been an internet marketer for over 7 years, I am relatively new to blogging. Now that I have decided to blog, I want to get good at it. While I am not interested in blogging for a living, I am interested in learning about

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-2556158017059171642009-12-20T09:17:00.003-07:002010-03-05T11:13:22.450-07:00

I’m talking about the new book 140 Characters: A Style Guide For The Short Form by Dom Sagolla and Wiley Publishing. A lot of people say to me that they do not get Twitter. I hear questions and comments like:Why would anyone care what I am doing on a moment by moment basis? I don’t know what to write. How can I write anything meaningful in 140 characters? Dom Sagolla offers answers to these

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-38938891061673672102009-12-19T16:24:00.004-07:002010-03-05T10:50:35.946-07:00

I’m always on the lookout for internet marketing books to recommend to my small business clients. I’ve been reading Twitter Power: How to dominate your market one tweet at a time by Joel Comm and Wiley publishing. Twitter Power provides a comprehensive overview of Twitter. It discusses in detail how to use Twitter and it highlights key third party tools that will help you go further than with

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-35153513554516577702009-12-03T06:22:00.001-07:002009-12-30T16:50:51.241-07:00

I’m currently working on four different online public relations videos for different clients. The experience of being immersed in so many videos has been more valuable than I expected. The format is very short about 2 minutes each, leaving about 45 seconds for testimonials from clients. Doing the math this means telling a compelling story in 75 seconds at a cost of over $1,000 per minute. This

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-64679798784693522862009-12-02T08:46:00.000-07:002009-12-02T08:46:51.020-07:00

This is my 3rd and final posting, on how long it takes Google to recognize my $299US Yahoo Directory Listing. After nearly 30 days, Google finally recognized the Yahoo Listing. As I said in my last post it took less than a week for both Business.com and HotFrog.ca by comparison at $299US and Free to put that into perspective. I guess I should not be overly critical of how long it took to get

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-40308202027370958552009-11-30T14:26:00.000-07:002009-11-30T14:26:18.316-07:00

If you have a PC and are looking for a good backup solution take a serious look at Genie Backup Manager Pro 8.0. This software is what we use and like. I just received an email today that for Nov 30th Only, the software is 50% off or $34.97US. Basically all their software is 50% off today only so if you are in the market, take 10 minutes and have a look.

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-17007018065043624792009-11-30T06:00:00.001-07:002009-12-30T16:53:33.402-07:00

I've been using a NAS or network attached storage device as a server alternative for nearly 3 years. I use a NAS over a server as I do not want to deal with the added complexity or administrative burden. Two weeks ago my old NAS up and died on me, leaving me scrambling for a replacement. Fortunately I'd had my eye on one for sometime a QNAP 809. My old NAS worked okay for us, but left much to be

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-47024648409403718952009-11-25T11:06:00.002-07:002009-11-25T11:21:41.107-07:00

An update to my earlier post about Google's treatment of Yahoo Directory Listings. It turns out that Google did index my Yahoo directory link after 9 days, however after 19 days it is still not showing up in my Google webmaster list of relevant backlinks that Google attributes to my site. Compare this to about 3 days for Business.com and BOTW.com and you have to wonder if Google regards Yahoo

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-43555289849124954192009-11-20T17:35:00.002-07:002009-11-23T10:06:09.497-07:00

Long have the virtues of a Yahoo Direct listing been extolled within SEO circles. If you wanted to get a top quality link with a page rank of 9, Yahoo and DMOZ where the two key links to acquire. With Yahoo Directory listings costing a steep $299US, you might expect that the search engines will at least index the listing quickly and historically this has been true. I am now three weeks into the

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-82376268811806956642009-11-20T17:33:00.002-07:002009-11-23T10:06:39.472-07:00

I ran across a “new to me” business directory the other day called Hot Frog. I have to say it is a very high quality directory with a page rank of 5, and Google had my new listing indexed in 1 hour. Try getting new content on your website indexed in 1 hour. If you have a new website or service to promote and you’re looking to increase your visibility on-line, checkout http://www.hotfrog.ca/.

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-90471070727004382012009-11-15T17:28:00.005-07:002010-09-13T14:05:43.504-06:00

When you start considering unique Christmas gifts for friends and clients this year consider something truly unique - A Gift of Possibility. Artist Courtney Milne created a very special calendar of fine art photos that you or your clients receive by email each day for a year. What is special about this e-calendar is that each day you get a reminder to see the possibility in the familiar, rather

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-75593032028824613652009-11-14T17:21:00.014-07:002010-03-04T17:48:50.486-07:00

For the last year I have had the pleasure of working with Laurence Seton as a client. Laurence is without a doubt the most organized person I have ever met. He is the author of a book called On Top Of Everything: Manage Your Projects & Life With Ease and the inventor of an organizational approach called Projecteze: The Ultimate Organizational System. I have to admit that I did not understand the

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-72400777395537675242009-11-13T17:05:00.012-07:002010-03-04T17:55:55.485-07:00

A new book by Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah An excellent primer on social media, pay per click marketing, blogs and lead generation that is surprisingly easy to read. I pickup this book the other day to see what the hype was about and was very pleasantly surprised. I found it to be a logically organized practical overview of the entire social media and Internet marketing process. I started

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2071437973486043291.post-54696581956260857882009-11-12T16:57:00.007-07:002011-01-05T02:12:42.334-07:00

In the process of generating quality back links to our own website, we discovered that very few internet business directories provide specific categories for business services companies. For example Coaches in particular are challenged as “business coaching” rarely exists as a category in existing directories. Upon closer inspection, we found this limited selection of categories to be the norm,

John Watsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04736132709159203240noreply@blogger.com