If you’ve browsed around this site, you realize SEO Services are offered.  Every so often, somebody will call or email requesting a proposal then throw in the zinger of “keep in mind that we have to keep our costs down.”

That’s akin to saying “hey, we really need your help but we don’t really value your services unless they’re almost free.”

Well Mr. or Ms. Poor Pitiful Business Owner, is your stuff free? I didn’t think so.

Understand this: investing in SEO Services isn’t like going to Macy’s and buying a shirt off the rack. There’s a lot that goes into SEO based on several key factors.

7 SEO Questions You Need to Answer

Don’t ask an SEO firm to shoot you back a flat ballpark price without supplying:

• What are the primary keyword phrases you wish to rank well for?
• Have you attempted to implement SEO before? If so, what were the results? Why are you no longer utilizing the firm you used before, or why are you no longer doing SEO in-house?
• Which locales/markets are you targeting? Do you have physical offices in the cities or towns you’re trying to rank well?
• How much competition is there? In other words, how many competing pages are there for each target keyword?
• What is the competition doing from an SEO perspective? In other words, how many pages and links do they have indexed? Does it look like they’ve been doing SEO for awhile or are they just starting?
• What is an acceptable time-frame to get onto the front page via Google Places and/or organic search? Generally speaking, a reputable SEO firm practicing white hat SEO will take anywhere from 3-6 months to get you onto page one depending on the competition.  If you don’t have that kind of time, SEO may not be right for you today. Consider PPC to attract more traffic if your needs are immediate.
• What would equivalent PPC traffic be worth? Simply stated: how much would you have to pay for each click for the traffic you’ll likely get from organic front page exposure? This is ultimately the savings your SEO firm is providing you every single month by getting on Google’s front page.

A legitimate SEO firm can determine all of these things for you, but you should understand that type of research and analysis is going to be factored into the services or you’re going to have to pay for them upfront. It’s reasonable to pay around $200 for such an analysis because it takes considerable time and the analyses provided can be quite thorough and insightful.

But What if I Find the Same Services for Less Later?

You probably already know this, but the price you pay on anything is the same everywhere … there’s always a risk of discovering it later for what appears to be less.

Let’s say you want a book just released … you can buy and read it today to benefit from the gained knowledge immediately or wait until it goes on sale one year later.

That same book may cost 50-75% less next year, but the benefits of reading it would be delayed for a full year, too. Which would be more valuable … saving money while letting others get further ahead of you or getting and applying the knowledge right away?

Since it’s “just information,” you may be one of those unreasonable types that believes it ought to be free anyway so paying for expertise may be foreign to you. If so, what about the time investment to create and assemble the information to present it you in an easily consumable fashion? Better yet, how much time would it take YOU to assemble the information and condense it into something legible and understandable? How much is an hour of your time worth?

Don’t Penalize Your New Provider for Others’ Missteps

Look, everybody has been burned at some point in business. It happens to all of us, but the scars shouldn’t carry over from provider to provider.

It’s a lot like dating … just because it didn’t work out with someone with brown hair before doesn’t mean all people with brown hair are bad matches for you.

That said, why should I bear the brunt of some other marketing provider’s missteps? I may have some empathy that you wasted your money elsewhere but not enough to compromise my pricing because someone else didn’t do a good job. Do you discount your prices every time somebody hits you with a pitiful sob story … where’s the logic in that?

Remember: you’re seeking a result that has value to you so don’t shortchange yourself by looking for the cheapest provider.

Why SEO Pricing is Misleading

SEO pricing is VERY misleading because someone may get you front page rankings in three months whereas someone else may charge you 1/2 the “price” yet take one year to deliver front page exposure.

Now, would you personally be upset if you paid $5,000 today to get front page exposure within 3 months then found, what appeared to be, similar services for $2,500 six months later? If your business benefited from the front page exposure with the $5,000 service within 3 months, which would depend on how good the website was at converting visitors, you shouldn’t be.

Conversely, if you paid $2,500 today and it took one year to get results, you’d have significant buyer’s remorse, right?

Pricing is directly proportional to what matters today not what the price may be six months from now … worrying what something may cost down the road creates paralysis by analysis. Don’t waste your time engaging in a scarcity mentality.

Pardon the Pricing Soapbox

Sorry for getting onto the soap box, but price is such an insignificant factor when placed into proper perspective. There’s simply more to evaluate because paying $5,000 for something that could generate an extra $500,000 in business isn’t exactly fair to the service provider you beat down on price.

To make matters worse, a business owner wouldn’t be overly willing to send a fat bonus check after the fact to the provider for helping to bring in that $500,000, would he? He wouldn’t want to divulge that it even happened so that’s the rub.

It’s About Value, Stupid!

When you invest in or implement SEO Services, evaluate the proposal based on the potential impact of front page exposure on your business and your life.

For instance:

• How well is your website converting visitors into leads or sales today? If it’s poor at converting visitors today, tossing more traffic at it isn’t going to do a lot of good. You need to get your website “house” in order before doing SEO.
• What is an average transaction worth to your business?If you sell $1 trinkets on your site, it’s not going to make a lot of sense to pay an SEO firm $1,500/month or more to get onto Google’s front page because the return just isn’t going to be there. I’d be rich if I had a dollar for every business owner that peddles cheap crap that proclaims “if you could just get a ton of traffic to my site, we’ll both be rich.” Please move along to the next slap because I’m not interested in trinket commissions.On the other hand, if you sell real estate and the average sale is $220,000, spending $1,500/month makes a lot of sense. Doesn’t it?
• What time-frame are you hoping to land on Google’s front page? If it’s tomorrow, that’s not fair because it’s extremely unrealistic. If it’s anything less than 3 months, it’s likely unrealistic if you’re looking for a “white hat” firm. If you’re all right with someone cutting corners and going over the line to get you front page rankings faster, understand it’s going to cost more and the risk is very high, too.

The bottom line is quality and speedy service will cost more than somebody who is willing to toss out a low price just to appease your suggestion to “keep the costs down.” That suggestion is ALWAYS implied because nobody goes to a provider and says “hey, charge me double because I like looking stupid to others.”

The question you need to ask yourself is what’s most important today: quality, speed, or price? You can’t have all three in equal proportion because the world doesn’t work that way. You may think you’re getting all three in equal portions, but one of those three elements is going to be compromised along the way.

Recently, there has been a flurry of activity with business owners approaching my partners and me about implementing various Internet marketing strategies for them to profitably grow their businesses. It’s a very welcomed flurry to say the least but just like everything else, there have been some eye opening inquiries, too.

The projects getting the most interest of late have ranged anywhere from simple website redesign all the way to perpetual product launches that include automated follow up sequences with integrated websites that specialize in continually launching a product or service. There have also been quite a few projects that involve “traditional” SEO work.

All good stuff that’s a lot of fun!

There have been some head scratchers tossed into the mix that I’ll attempt to transition into a learning experience through the use of a couple of metaphors that you should understand fairly well.

The Beacon that Lost Power in the Middle of the Night? Hardly!

One thing that always pokes through with business owners that DON’T take action is that they’re looking to nitpick everything to the point of indecision and paralysis by analysis. Most entrepreneurs and business owners got their businesses started by being decisive and taking calculated risks … being action takers!

Somewhere along the line, entrepreneurs lose sight of the “lighthouse” by becoming too self-important or believing they can do everything themselves (i.e. the “Superman Complex”) much more cost effectively than anyone else on the planet.

An easily recognizable set of symptoms when entrepreneurs and business owners allow themselves to get way off course include:

• Typically requiring in depth explanations of every strategy & tactic
• Line item pricing on everything
• Multiple proposals for extremely similar projects
• Overly detailed scopes of work … the rationale is that if there is enough detail in the SOW, they’ll be able to implement everything themselves without paying an outsider
• Frequent conference calls to discuss the same items repeatedly

They are like a ship out at sea that was focused solely on getting to the lighthouse only to deviate off course to the point they rationalize the lighthouse “must have lost power” … not that they got so far off course the lighthouse became invisible.

The First Fork in the Road for Most Business Owners

There almost always comes a time where a business owner becomes downright confused and overwhelmed about how to best grow their business.

This is one of the first forks in the road many entrepreneurs experience.

I see it everyday … I have experienced it myself on several occasions because marketing isn’t as easy as most people perceive it to be. The more you want to accomplish, the more complicated it gets.  It’s not all about catchy slogans, combining nice colors together to create a flashy piece of creative, developing a funny video that becomes viral overnight, hosting fun events, etc.

Not to boast or brag, but it takes some serious mental horsepower to dig into your prospects’ brain, figure out what they’re thinking and why then determine what will get them to pull their wallets out of their pockets to spend money with you instead of your top competitors. That’s not something most business owners thought about when they started their businesses. A look at the number of business failures every year proves that, right?

Today’s Business Owners … Pilots?

Today’s business owners are a lot like pilots sitting on a taxi way waiting for the control tower to tell them which runway to proceed to in order to best reach their desired destination.

A monumental problem arises when the control tower instructs the business owner (pilot) to head to the proper runway to take off because the pilot chooses to argue with the control tower about the price for taking off and landing.

How ridiculous does that sound?

Now, other flights have to be delayed, re-routed, and inconvenienced all because one fussy pilot suddenly has a change of heart after boarding passengers onto the plane and getting clearance to take-off because of … pricing?

What just happened here?

The control tower simply gathered the information about where the pilot wanted to go then instructed him how to best get there within the flow of the other planes scheduled to takeoff and land.

The pilot wasn’t concerned with pricing when he requested clearance for the runway because he was solely interested in the destination and the best path to get there, right? Why did price become an issue when it was time to head to the runway?

The question begs are you like the pilot arguing with the control tower over things that matter very little in the grand scheme of things, or are you truly interested in the destination?

Which Marketing “Airline” Would You Choose?

When you’re looking to fly your business to prosperity, doesn’t it make sense to book a flight with someone that’s able to get you there safely and on time?

Just think … the more you argue and nitpick over pricing when it comes to profitably marketing your business, the further away you get from your desired “beachfront” destination.

PS–Just like Southwest, bags fly free on all our flights!

This post is based on a couple of real world experiences along with conversations with others in the marketing industry and should serve as a warning to all marketers, web designers and programmers the globe over.

Since we’re all in tight times financially, scams are running rampant no matter what industry you’re in, and they happen in marketing just like any other industry.

Background

For the second time in about three years I’ve been exposed to a scam in the making that is camouflaged innocently for unsuspecting types. Luckily, my BS radar has gone off, and I have gotten some timely (sage) advice both times so the personal harm was relatively light.  For others, it hasn’t been so painless.

As you undoubtedly know, there’s a section of our population that will scam and scheme their way to riches no matter how many bridges they burn … that’s no surprise to anybody. What is a surprise is that there are entrepreneurs and business owners out there that pull worse crap on hard working people that are just trying to do a good job and earn an honest living.

I’m going to outline exactly how they try to scam hard working marketers like us in this article.

Innocent Beginnings

Typically, these scam artists operate a little like this:

Person A (we’ll call him Brad) has a good idea to create a website that’ll match a service provider (we’ll call them plumbers in this example) with a prospect seeking those services. Simple enough, right?

Brad wants to take data from plumbers such as their bio, city, state, zip code, services offered, and pricing to offer to visitors of his website to search for potential providers.

In order to make money, Brad may charge the service provider to be listed in their database or for access to the leads along with running ads on the site to generate revenue.

Nothing wrong with this scenario at all … it’s got the potential to be a very profitable business especially if Brad can attract enough traffic from relevant prospects.

The problems seep in shortly after the initial exploration phase however, and here’s how they go …

Find a Marketer or Web Designer with SOME of the Skills

What people like Brad will do at this stage is find an eager to please marketer or web designer to engage in a couple of “exploratory” talks about their project. Brad briefly discusses his project and hypes it as “this shouldn’t be that hard to pull of, right?”

Frequently, the unsuspecting marketer or web designer will agree that it shouldn’t be that hard provided there is someone that can help with the database and programming if it proves to be too complicated. Even if the marketer or web designer freely admits they don’t possess the complete expertise to complete the entire project by themselves, Brad won’t pay that any mind because he ultimately wants to jam somebody up.

Beginnings of an Outright Scam

The scam begins when Brad suggests “I’d like to see a prototype developed so I can check it out before moving forward. We have a ‘done deal’ if you can demonstrate a simple and functioning prototype.” Since the marketer aims to please, he starts working on the prototype.

The prototype will often be given an unrealistic (i.e. quick) deadline, and Brad will bitch, belly ache, and complain about anything shown to him because he’s looking to get over on you. It’s what guys like Brad do to keep their costs down while feeling more “in charge” and self-important.

Brad will also suggest “it would be great if we could get the search to stay within a certain radius of the zip code or city to make the results more relevant. That shouldn’t be too hard either because I saw the same thing on whatchamacallit.com, right?” That’s a good feature and a valid request, but that’s where things get more complex and will take more time to implement.

All the while, Brad will choose to focus on the fact that you agreed in the exploratory talks that it should be easy. He’s pitting your own words against you to plant the seed that maybe you shouldn’t charge fair market value for this project … it’s a common practice in every industry, but most people don’t realize it’s being done to them because they’re too deeply involved.

That’s What Contracts Are For, Right?

I can hear you saying, “that’s why you get a contract drawn up and outline a mutually agreed upon scope of work,” right? Even if a contract is drawn up, signed and an initial deposit is made, the scam is already on!

The web designer or marketer will design a rough prototype to show Brad, but he will always bitch, moan and complain about everything in an effort to drive down pricing because he knows the price tag to pull off everything will likely be in the tens of thousands when all is said and done if it’s to be done his “liking or to spec.”

This Doesn’t Meet My Specifications!

That’s the key phrase above … “done to his liking or spec” because nothing will ever be done to match the ever moving target even with a contract executed.

Brad believes that once work commences and there’s a deal in place, he can bitch his way into getting more and more done for the project as long as the demands don’t change the overall scope of work too much. More often than not, he’ll get his way because the marketer doesn’t want to lose his business especially now.

Then, if the project ever gets completed, the finished product won’t be remotely close enough to suit Brad or match the exact scope outlined in the contract. He’ll then threaten to sue because what was delivered wasn’t what he wanted and doesn’t match the scope in the contract so the designer will offer to find someone to complete the job on his dime to avoid the embarrassment and anguish of an upset client.

Once the designer finds someone that can complete the job, they end up taking a bath on the entire project. Brad wins, designer loses, but nobody is truly happy. Brad goes on to live happily ever after while the designer is left holding a very heavy bag of crap.

Let’s Stick Together!

I sincerely hope this hasn’t happened to you. Like I mentioned above, I’ve come across this exact scenario twice in the past three years yet I avoided getting involved in either project beyond the exploratory phase so I have no deep scars.  Others haven’t been so fortunate however.

As marketers, we need to stick together to help one another avoid the “Brads” of the world … they’re bad clients no matter how much they pay us. They typically present themselves as very knowledgeable overall, frequently boast about how wonderfully successful they are (that always seems to trigger my BS meter), will claim to be a “straight shooter” yet they act incredibly naive about their project. Don’t be fooled … they know it’s a much bigger project than they’re letting on. It’s all part of the scam.

Anybody who is looking to stick it to you from the outset is a bad seed, and they will gobble up your resources with their incessant demands and requests for “status updates” that usually involve useless conference calls or face-to-face meetings. At some point, you’ll find yourself having meetings about meetings that serve as nothing but hot air spewing from Brad to build himself up and try to make you feel guilty for not meeting his misguided expectations.

In many cases, rotten eggs like Brad get a lot of work done on the front end for free because they want to see the “prototype” developed before they agree to pay the first penny, and hard working web designers like you want to land projects like this because there’s hope for a bigger payday.  That’s where the trouble begins … don’t fall for this shell game!

What’s Your Take?

Does any of this sound familiar to you? If so, I’d love to hear your story.  Drop me a line or leave a comment below.

Today, I’ve been doing battle with Infusionsoft over an email campaign to a small sample list of 3,150 dentists in nearby areas (from Louisville, KY).

To make a long story short, Infusionsoft has terminated my account even though I have been a Certified Marketing Automation Coach for nearly 2 years with them. In fact, I was in the original certification class that paid quite a bit of money (like $2,500 out of my own pocket) to get certified so I’m none too pleased that Infusionsoft and the nerds in their compliance department have taken such a stance with me, but life goes on as they say.

I have never committed any previous “violations.” I’d argue that I haven’t violated the CAN SPAM laws in this instance either, and I’ll present my side of the argument below.

In the spirit of learning and sharing experiences, I thought I’d share the details of the email in question that was sent and how it IS compliant with the CAN SPAM regulations set forth on the GOVERNMENT’S website (for a complete rundown, go here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm)

The Primary FTC CAN-SPAM Provisions

1. Don’t use false or misleading header information. Your “From,” “To,” “Reply-To,” and routing information – including the originating domain name and email address – must be accurate and identify the person or business who initiated the message.
2. Don’t use deceptive subject lines. The subject line must accurately reflect the content of the message.
3. Identify the message as an ad. The law gives you a lot of leeway in how to do this, but you must disclose clearly and conspicuously that your message is an advertisement.
4. Tell recipients where you’re located. Your message must include your valid physical postal address. This can be your current street address, a post office box you’ve registered with the U.S. Postal Service, or a private mailbox you’ve registered with a commercial mail receiving agency established under Postal Service regulations.
5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you. Your message must include a clear and conspicuous explanation of how the recipient can opt out of getting email from you in the future. Craft the notice in a way that’s easy for an ordinary person to recognize, read, and understand. Creative use of type size, color, and location can improve clarity. Give a return email address or another easy Internet-based way to allow people to communicate their choice to you. You may create a menu to allow a recipient to opt out of certain types of messages, but you must include the option to stop all commercial messages from you. Make sure your spam filter doesn’t block these opt-out requests.
6. Honor opt-out requests promptly. Any opt-out mechanism you offer must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after you send your message. You must honor a recipient’s opt-out request within 10 business days. You can’t charge a fee, require the recipient to give you any personally identifying information beyond an email address, or make the recipient take any step other than sending a reply email or visiting a single page on an Internet website as a condition for honoring an opt-out request. Once people have told you they don’t want to receive more messages from you, you can’t sell or transfer their email addresses, even in the form of a mailing list. The only exception is that you may transfer the addresses to a company you’ve hired to help you comply with the CAN-SPAM Act.
7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf. The law makes clear that even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing, you can’t contract away your legal responsibility to comply with the law. Both the company whose product is promoted in the message and the company that actually sends the message may be held legally responsible.

So there you have it in a nutshell.  Let’s look at the email I sent and determine (together) whether I’m “compliant” or not.

Initial email sent to dental pros on 12/10/09

Ok, let’s pick this thing apart as objectively as possible.

FTC Requirement #1: Don’t use false or misleading header information

The header information used my primary email address and did not hide behind any IP spoofing or multi-IP addressing schemes. Check.

FTC Requirement #2: Don’t use deceptive subject lines.

The subject line for this email was: “Couldn’t your business benefit from more qualified leads?” The email is about a free eBook on lead generation and list building for small and medium businesses. Deceptive? You tell me.  Wouldn’t a small business owner benefit from more leads coming into his/her business?

Additionally, that subject line is relevant to just about every business owner and executive out there because lead generation is the key to sustained business growth. Most people realize that, but many uninformed people still want to cry “SPAM!” at every turn no matter how relevant the offer or email happens to be.

FTC Requirement #3: Identify the message as an ad.

What is that I see just above the header image and body of the e-mail? Sure looks like “This is an advertisement.” Check.

Good old Roger isn’t trying to deceive anyone with the email . . . he knows it’s an ad, and he’s not afraid to say so. 

FTC Requirement #4: Tell recipients where you’re located

My full mailing address is clearly stated in the footer section along with a phone number to reach me should someone have questions, concerns, or any other problems.  I took it one step further than required by providing the phone number.  I simply wanted people to know there was a real person behind the email that they could actually talk to.

My objective was/is to be as transparent as possible.

FTC Requirement #5: Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you.

In the footer section, there is a clear and easy way to opt-out immediately by simply clicking the link.  No more emails or messages from me once you click that. Check.

FTC Requirement #6: Honor opt-out requests promptly

As mentioned in point #5, once you click the link, that’s the end of the messages from me.  Request honored immediately. Checkmate.

FTC Requirement #7: Monitor what others are doing on your behalf

Doesn’t really apply to this situation because I wasn’t hiding behind anything.  Everything was above board and in compliance with the FTC requirements as set forth.

Now, I cannot control someone else mining my email address and sending out emails through a third party as if they were me that I do not control . . . none of us really can to be blunt.

If someone wants to scrounge up a bunch of email addresses and blast away, they can do that although it’s illegal. I can only control what originates from my own accounts and the third parties I employ to carry out those actions. You’re in the same boat so I’m preaching to the choir here.

What constitutes true “SPAM?”

Now, this all brings me to the next and primary point.  I understand that people are fed up with email marketing to a large extent, and I’m no different, but that doesn’t mean every piece of email that comes from someone unknown is SPAM.  I’m sorry . . . look at the FTC regulations again and how they have built in requirements for sending unsolicited emails. Read them and then re-read them.

Where in there does it say “you cannot email someone you don’t know or send them an unsolicited email under any circumstances?” It more or less says that if you’re going to do that, here are the requirements you must follow . . .

Just because you didn’t explicitly ask someone to email you doesn’t constitute SPAM when they do . . . very similar to the telephone.  How many calls do you get per day from people you don’t know? If you run a business, chances are the majority of incoming calls are from unknown people until they become regular customers.

Do you not agree?

The regulations don’t say you can’t ever email someone you don’t know or email them a relevant offer! The entire act was designed to dissuade repeated pharmaceutical and porn related emails that were bogging down people’s inboxes at an alarming rate.

It also was designed to make marketers responsible for the emails they send versus repeatedly sending the same garbage with no recourse for the recipient.  That’s the intent . . . there are plenty of marketers out there that violate the hell out of this even with the regulations in place.  I get that, but I’m not one of them nor are my clients!

The shady marketers setup shop through some offshore email provider and blast away . . . you’ve undoubtedly seen the emails for Viagra, Cialis, and plenty of sketchy offers out there. Let me ask you this: when you get one of those emails, how closely are they following the CAN SPAM requirements? They’re not . . . THAT is SPAM . . . not every single unsolicited email you receive on a daily basis.

Here’s a Challenge for You

Look through the emails that come to you/your business from people inquiring about something business related or looking to do business with you . . . I’d bet 80% of them are from people you don’t know, have never heard of, or have no idea what they’re emailing you for until you open the email.  Right?

If you’re receiving regular business emails from someone, trace the origins of your relationship to the first email exchange (if you can). Who emailed whom first? Were you close business acquaintances prior to that first email? Were you friends? How did the relationship start? My point is someone had to reach out to the other to get things rolling.

Furthermore, how many emails to your business account are from friends that have absolutely zero business purpose? How many of your friends’ emails were explicitly solicited? Remember, this is supposed to be your “business email” so how much junk do you have from people you actually know that aren’t looking to conduct any form of professional business with you?  It’s something to think about, isn’t it?

Email Intent

Consider this blurb from the FTC site:

What matters is the “primary purpose” of the message. To determine the primary purpose, remember that an email can contain three different types of information:

• Commercial content – which advertises or promotes a commercial product or service, including content on a website operated for a commercial purpose;
• Transactional or relationship content – which facilitates an already agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer about an ongoing transaction; and
• Other content – which is neither commercial nor transactional or relationship.

If the message contains only commercial content, its primary purpose is commercial and it must comply with the requirements of CAM-SPAM. If it contains only transactional or relationship content, its primary purpose is transactional or relationship. In that case, it may not contain false or misleading routing information, but is otherwise exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.”

Was I FTC CAN-SPAM Compliant?

SO I ask you, was my email in compliance with the FTC requirements for CAN-SPAM as laid out on their website?

Look, you can flame all you want about unsolicited emails, but they’re part of doing business as long as you comply with the requirements and regulations stipulated.  It’s time the over-sensitive types quit designating every unsolicited email as SPAM especially when the email passes all the tests for compliance.

The Bottom Line

I’m not recommending you ever truly SPAM anyone.  I’m merely stating that relevant commercial email that complies with the regulations set forth by the US FTC is NOT SPAM no matter how many times you want to cry it.

Furthermore, if someone requests to be taken off your list or you repeatedly email them the same stuff over and over, that’s not in compliance with the requirements either so don’t misunderstand the spirit of this post.

If I cried SPAM over every piece of unsolicited email received, I’d never have acquired that first customer, partner or referral because email is a major business communication vehicle today, and it’s one I much prefer over the telephone.

What’s Your Take?

I welcome your comments and feedback. I realize this is a touchy subject for many, but I hope we can engage in some healthy dialogue here.

Another Southern Social Media podcast was just completed. Among the topics today:

• 6 Blog plug-ins to make your blog more social (a.k.a. “viral”)
• Microblogging sites other than Twitter
• Sandra Bullock and porn stars
• The southern definition of “apparent”
• Why so many social media sites?
• Social media strategy
• Avoiding the time sink with social media

If you haven’t gained access to the webinar replay, hop on over to http://MarketingVirtualSeminar.com