This post has been a long time coming, and part of it is my own damn fault. More on that in just a second.

For full disclaimer purposes: stop reading this post if you believe you should not pay for someone else’s hard earned knowledge or skills or that everything informational ought to be free because you’re not going to like what I’m about to say.  I’ll save you the trouble in advance.

<rant>

Here’s the rub . . . I get a lot of calls from people wanting help on various things.  Auto-responders, SEO, social media marketing, direct response mailers, banner ads, targeted Google PPC placements, website design, graphics, ROI tracking & analysis, website analysis, teleseminars, webinars, workshops, bootcamps . . . the list goes on and on.

I’m beyond flattered that so many people turn to me for my insights and advice, but (damn it!) don’t expect me to give it away for free all the time!!! The reason I say this is partly my fault is because I truly enjoy helping people so I get roped in before the “tab” is paid.

When it comes time to pay the tab, some people are put off by the fact that I deeply believe I deserve to earn (good) money for helping them achieve their goals. Some of them say “but you didn’t actually DO anything  . . . you just shared some tips and/or techniques that I sort of knew a little about already.  You just helped steer me to complete them.” Hello!?!

When you call a painter to come out and paint your house, why do you pay him/her? It’s not like you’re not capable of painting your own house right? Same with a plumber–you can unclog your drains by going to Lowe’s or Home Depot, buying a “snake” and shoving it down in there to remove the blockage, but you typically don’t. You can cut your own lawn, but a good number of us hire others to do that for us so we can focus on other things.  When you go to the doctor to get a prescription, why do you pay him/her? You are paying for their knowledge and application of that knowledge.  Even though you may have done some research and come to the same conclusions on your own, you didn’t balk at paying for the knowledge, skills, or reassurance right?

You couldn’t visit your attorney, tax consultant, oil change dude, local sandwich shop, bakery, or restaurant and get a bunch of stuff for free so why do people believe a consultant or advisor should work for free when the main thing they sell is an intangible good (knowledge)? Yes, it doesn’t have a hard and set price tag associated across the board but believe you me, the knowledge didn’t come cheap! It’s taken years upon years and a lot of trial and error to figure out all of these different ways to “skin the cat” with Internet Marketing. You benefit from that because you don’t have to go through the same trial and error or the immense expense to self educate yourself on all of it and how to piece it together nicely.

Most of this knowledge and skill has come as a result of a lot of personal expense . . . to buy other people’s training programs and attend several live events to network and joint venture with equally sharp and motivated people so that you can achieve your goals with our help. If you’ve been following my stuff for any length of time (or even just a couple of days), you know I’m offering several training programs to share my knowledge with you without asking you to spend a lot of money with me to get the ball rolling.  Maybe that’s the problem, you’d prefer to pay $1900 for the same knowledge to develop skills that you can pay less than $500 to obtain right now.

Hell, there’s even a measly $27 product available that is vastly under-priced, but some people believe that ought to be free, too because the videos are done, the website is finished, and the workbooks are complete.  There is nothing “physical” so it should be free, they ration. The other argument I hear is that there is a lot of free information already out there on a lot of this stuff: SEO, Twitter, social media, auto-responders, list building, banner ads, PPC, etc.

Let me ask you this: how long would it take you to find this “free” information, consume it, reassemble it in a logical fashion so that it could be applied regularly, all while developing the confidence that you’re doing everything right? Here’s a benchmark: start at 100 hours to scratch the surface.  Let’s say your time is worth $50/hour . . . that’s $5,000 right there, yet it’s too much to ask to pay someone that already has the abilities to not only apply the knowledge but is confident in their effectiveness?

So to make a very long story short, whether you do business with me or someone else, don’t be put off that you’re going to have to pay talented people at some point even if they’re only worth a tad more than a wooden nickel. It’s what we do for a living, and we deserve to get paid just like you.

If you’re just lazy and don’t want to take any initiative, you’re going to have to pay a premium to have whatever you’re looking to accomplish done for you. That’s how business works so the choice is always yours, but don’t be offended next time when it comes time to pay the tab.

</rant>

Now that you’ve endured my latest rant, go make something positive happen!  Or better yet, buy some of my stuff or pay me to help you create your own stuff. 

Here’s a quick overview video (~8 min) that looks at how much a top organic search ranking may be worth to the real estate professional in terms of traffic and PPC costs.

Once you’re done watching the video, share your comments with everyone below.

Want to simulate the analysis in the video? Visit http://imoPrinciples.com/report and download the report (no registration required) and the spreadsheet files.

Also–if you’re ready to attack SEO and Social Media Marketing, visit http://remoPrinciples.com and order my eBook for just $67. IF you get started now and dedicate about an hour per day to this stuff, you’ll be glad you did 3 months from now.

I have more or less finished the core of the Personalization Precept report and have begun to outline the campaign sequences for it.  The official release date is still Friday, August 8, 2008, and I believe this will be a report that direct response marketers are going to want to get their hands on to better understand the current market and the metrics driving it.

Some statistics on the report:

• 40 pages long
• 5.3 MB
• 13 graphs
• 7 case studies
• 4 quotations from real world field marketing experts
• Lots of statistical analysis

My hope is that you’ll take the time to register for this free resource right now by visiting http://PersonalizationPrecept.com.  Again, you won’t begin to receive correspondence from me until Friday, but things will begin in earnest then.

I look forward to your feedback and learning about your business as things progress.

In our ongoing video series that highlights increasing sales for a fictitious technology company, I review the stakeholder meetings in this installment.

Brief Recap

As I hope you remember, this is a $62.5 million technology company that has experienced a few bumps in the road toward their goal of becoming a $100 million company so we’re setting out to help them get back on the growth track. A lot of the pains uncovered in this fictitious example are not uncommon for businesses in any sector so I hope you’ll take a look at this video in addition to the others produced thus far. Below today’s video are links to the others just in case you wish to review and/or catch up. Enjoy!

Previous Videos in this Series

5 Ways Enterprises Can Increase Sales

Keys to Success in Growing Technology Sector Sales

First off, I’ve been battling a couple of virus & spyware infected computers since last Saturday so I apologize for slacking on the blog posts this week. I plan to get the videos rolling again very soon, and the computer problems appear to be behind me now. I’m debating if I want to relive the horrifying experience through this blog, but I’m a little raw at the moment so it’s probably not a good idea. Just know that Windows Defender, McAfee and Cyber Defender were all unable to detect and/or clean the parasites that got a hold of my machines so they won’t receive high marks.

Ok, onto some business musings I hope you’ll comment or share your take with me.

Sonic’s Onto Something

I went to Sonic earlier, and I’m becoming more of a fan of their organization each day. The TV ad campaign is great because their spots are funny, entertaining, and they get you to remember the product and restaurant because of the ad which is what a good ad is supposed to do, right? It’s more than that though–there seems to be a positive philosophy of treating the customer right at Sonic. At least that seems to be the case at the one near my home.  It’s almost like “yeah, we’re different,” but it’s not in that creepy weird way like you see with a lot of people who take “different” so far overboard.

Another benefit Sonic has built into their product line that goes highly unnoticed more often than not–the ice they use in the drinks, you know that good crunchy ice, makes it to where you almost want them to load the thing down with ice so you can crunch on it long after the beverage is gone.  Usually loading a drink with ice is bad at 99.9% of the fast food joints, but it’s not so bad at Sonic.  This does two things: people will go out of their way for drinks with the “good ice,” and Sonic controls costs by being able to get away with loading up on ice versus product. My visit to Sonic was for a drink mainly because I was craving some of that “good ice” for some reason.  Don’t get me wrong, the drinks aren’t the only good thing about Sonic–all of their fare is good, and serving breakfast all day is a great move on their part.  Overall, they just do a lot of things right so it’s worth noticing.

Damn You Subway!

The other day, Saturday maybe, I was in the shower and caught myself humming “5 dollar, 5 dollar . . . 5 dollar foot longs.” It took me a second to realize I was humming a Subway “jingle” to myself, but it’s a groovy little tune. One of the girls at Jersey Mike’s, I’m no longer a Subway guy, cracked up when I mentioned the Subway karaoke rendition then she started singing it so it must not just be me.

Kudos to Subway or their ad agency for coming up with a good spot that doesn’t involve a guy who lost a gazillion pounds yet is still overweight or featuring a NASCAR driver that is fat, doesn’t know what turkey is, and can’t seem to work a razor.  I still haven’t figured out how Tony Stewart landed a healthy food commercial–everybody knows he’s not watching his weight!  Anyway.

Finally, the Reds Make a Good Move or Two

If you’re into baseball, you may be aware that the Cincinnati Reds finally called up Jay Bruce, their 21 year old outfield phenom.  Why it took until May 27, 2008 is questionable, but it’s good to see the organization try to inject some life back into the team, and the fans have seemingly responded.  There is a lot of buzz about the Reds because of the move, and Bruce starting off 4 for 6 with two doubles and two stolen bases hasn’t hurt the cause.  The guy isn’t going to turn around the team’s season all by himself so let’s not get too carried away, but at least the organization is acting like they WANT to win for a change which is what most of us want to see versus the typical “lip service.” In professional sports, the most powerful marketing is a consistent winning team.

On top of the Bruce move, they got Corey Patterson to agree to a demotion to AAA which means his Mendoza Line batting average won’t be a temptation for Dusty Baker to toss into the lineup at the lead-off position anymore.  Corey, you’re not going back up anytime soon so welcome to Louisville.

While this has little to do with business, it does have some marketing tie ins because the Reds are trying to market Jay Bruce as the future centerpiece of the franchise.

Your Turn

Have you noticed anything good or bad from a marketing perspective lately?  If so, share it below in the comment section.