Which would you say is worse: a mistake that prevents you from gaining a new customer, or one that loses an existing customer?

They're both bad. But the mistake that loses an existing customer is worse, because if it's bad enough to change someone's good opinion of you, it's surely more than enough to turn...
[read more]

I may not be posting for the next few days. Before signing off for the holiday, I thought I'd leave a Thanksgiving message -- 7 ways internet marketing is like Thanksgiving.

#1 Most of what we think we know about it is a myth.

The myths of Thanksgiving start with it's beginnings. Most of us...
[read more]

Bloggers Widgetitis is an insidious disease. In the early stages of infection, the victim feels mild euphoria with few adverse effects. Later, as the disease enters it's virulent phase, they become overwhelmed with insatiable cravings for bright, shiny objects, and exhibit self-destructive behavior in an attempt to satisfy them.

In the late stages, their blogs...
[read more]

I got an email from my blog today asking me to moderate a comment. Here are a few excerpts:

Author : chad darwin...

My name is John...

I was looking in the search engines and seen your site your Alexa traffic rank is ****** [no, I didn't redact the numbers -- the comment actually contained...
[read more]

Did the announcement for your last event look something like this:

The door opens at 12:00 noon Eastern. That's 9:00am Pacific, 11:00am Central (sorry, Mountain, not enough people in your timezone for me to list you), 5:00pm GMT (a.k.a. UTC)...

The only thing worse than that mess is to only name your own timezone, leaving...
[read more]

Blogging experts talk about writing "anchor posts" or "pillar articles" -- posts that get links, rank high in the search engines, and pull in lots of traffic over the long haul.

Sounds great, but how do you write them?

Yesterday, I got a little curious. I've been blogging daily for a few months now (as...
[read more]

When marketing teachers talk about your "Unique Selling Proposition" or "USP", they nearly always assume that you have one, but just haven't figured it out yet.

But what if you don't have one? What if you really are just another "me too" marketer? Should you just give up and go back to your day job,...
[read more]

You wouldn't think charging more would be a good way to make your customers happy. And by itself, it's usually not. There are exceptions, like exclusive luxury items, where people brag about getting fleeced (though not in those words :-). But most of the time, people are happier with a lower price.

So how can...
[read more]

I wrote a few days ago about how to end procrastination -- a problem lots of internet marketers suffer from.

Well, guess what. Your customers have the same problem. How can you prevent them from putting off buying, and are there ways to benefit ethically from procrastination?

We usually think of procrastination as putting off...
[read more]

Terry Dean didn't beat around the bush when he wrote:

You cannot create desire for your product.

Trying to do so is a losing proposition. All we do in business is find out what hopes, dreams, fears, and desires people already have...and supply them with products that match. We create value based around what peopl...
[read more]