2. Why am I both a customer and an  Aweber affiliate? I’m a customer because I have tried almost every email newsletter/ auto-responder service on the market & Aweber is hands down the best! As for being an affiliate. Well, it’s almost the same thing as getting $500 off your next car from your dealership if you refer a friend or family member who buys a vehicle. You get a price break on what you want and need, while sending business to someone you respect so your friend can get what they want and need! Win-Win!

One huge difference though!!!

Unlike a one time price break, the Aweber affiliate program keeps paying you month after month for as long as your referred customer keeps paying! (Hint: I’ve been a paying Aweber client for over 4 years!)

Here is the bottom line:

1. As a customer I pay 19$/month
2. As an affiliate I make more than $19/ month and growing!
3. Every customer referred to Aweber actually pays you 30% month

I think at this point you see where I’m going with this! At bare minimum why not become an Aweber affiliate and try to refer at least enough business to cover your costs? Even if it’s a simple link on your site, forwarding the link on Facebook or setting up your sister with the email list she needs for her hair salon, it is money earned & thus saved! So what if it takes a year or more to get enough customers…

It’s the biggest no brainer I’ve come across in a long time!

(My affiliate links below)

Free to become An Aweber Affiliate
1$ to become an Aweber Customer

Not paying for the best email list & autoresponder service online… PRICELESS!!!

Instead the question today is, are the e-mail wars vs. social networking still raging? Is e-mail as a business marketing tool still relevant?

Let’s try and answer these two questions:

The e-mail war indeed rages on! What I mean by this is that although social networking, micro blogging and instant messaging have taken the main stage the last several years, we ALL still rely on email as the main stay of a significant percentage of our time on the Internet and or mobile devices. Despite giving up a percentage of time to social networks, email is still the preferred communication tool on the Internet for the majority. The war rages on, with all of these additional social communication tools still requiring us to have a valid email address before we can use them! Heck, email even notifies us when we should be logging into our social networks. When Twitter or Facebook no longer depend on email addresses, then this will be the signal that the E-Mail Wars are coming to an end! This will happen one day, the world is just not quite ready for a Facebook or Twitter operating system just yet.

Is e-mail still relevant as a business marketing tool?

After conducting a seriously unofficial survey of many business owners I know, email is still by far the easiest way for them to reach out to all their customers the fastest! Unfortunately, for social networking, many, many SME business haven’t even graduated to email newsletters, such as Aweber or Constant Contact, let alone trying to create effective campaigns on social services such as Facebook or Twitter!

Word of caution to all of you tech company owners! Unless you are tech to tech B2B, then there is still a ton of educating needed on the ‘basics’ for a good number of SME clients and prospects (opportunity is alive and well in North America). Those companies that educate or automate… Will continue to win!

The email wars rage on and they are far from over.

If you are a small to medium sized business and want to read up on email marketing, I would suggest getting advice from the bloggers & professionals at companies that deal with email marketing on the front lines, day in and day out! Even more importantly, read the comments on these blogs as their customers often create light bulb moments you can take to the bank.

Checkout the blogs at:

Aweber/blog (email marketing tips)
Constant Constant Best Practices Blog

If you are a business or entrepreneur that has already figured out email marketing, and are ready to graduate to marketing on social networks. Then as far as I am concerned, there is only one person you need to study & learn from and that is Trust Agent:

ChrisBrogan.com

What do you think? Will a Facebook operating system replace your need for email one day?

Volkswagen has put together something pretty cool and outside of the box with ‘The Fun Theory’ … do check it out : www.TheFunTheory.com

First off, unless you are prepared to spend north of TOO MUCH MONEY a month you are going to have a very difficult time legitimately dominating Search Engines Rankings for a top level niche online. The fact of the matter is that regardless of what any SEO company says for any price, the search engines will discover & punish SEO tactics. Maybe they will not punish you today, tomorrow, or even next month… but if it is purely a SEO Tactic it will eventually have the complete opposite effect that you desire.

So what is the secret to dominating SEO for any niche over the Long Run?

Is it back links? Nope, but over time legitimate back links can help.

Is it massive use of different social media accounts? No, although effective & integrity based use of company or personal social media accounts can be good for connecting with your niche, customers & prospects!

Is it paying for over seas content spinners to push out mass content across the web? Definitely a huge NO WAY!

Is it links from authority sites like Wall Street Journal, Major Universities & CNN? No, but as you can imagine a quality one way link from an authority site (the legitimate way) is great for your search engine rankings.

Here is the big secret folks.

The absolute best approach to dominating any niche online is…

It is all about regularly & consistently putting out the best content in the world for your niche. It must be content that is or could eventually be referenced by world class websites, offline publications & media. It is content that generates discussion. It is content that is relevant, timely & engaging. It is text, audio, video, PDF, documents and any other type of world class material you or your organization spits out.

If you or your organization spent 75% of your time on tactics and 25% of the time on content, then any Search Engine Optimization gains will surely be lost as quickly as they came. I Highly suggest you, your organization and everyone seeking better search engine rankings that the correct formula for long term domination of any niche online is spending 75% of the time on the content, and 25% of the time on legitimate strategies that the major search engines will be happy to reward your web property with higher rankings over the long term.

So whether you do it yourself, or choose to work with a marketing company, please be wary of any company, program or Search Engine Guru who doesn’t focus on the quality of your CONTENT, and is happy to take your money for the promise of 1^st Page Rankings on Google, Yahoo or Bing. There are literally 1000’s of legitimate strategies you can employ to effectively distribute & promote your world class content on the web, and they aren’t a secret. In fact, Google, Yahoo & MSN openly blog to webmasters about what’s cool and what gets you or your marketing team in hot water. At bare minimum you or someone on your team should be keeping up with Google’s Webmaster Blog here: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/

To truly dominate Search Engine Rankings over the long term laser focus your efforts on creating world class content. If your organization does not have the talent to create top notch content, spend the money to get it done properly. Choose to work with only reputable, and experienced marketing firms & or professionals that can help you ensure both your content and online marketing will have the desired long term search engine rankings. Anyone can employ short term tactics and have short term success, but only the legitimate strategies you employ will improve your search engine rankings for years to come.

Online they are the bloggers (including traditional journalists) YouTube video producers, the Twitter Elite, the Squidoo experts, and other online content creators that can create change and shift opinions.

Over the next few years offline thought leaders will be few and far between. Not that they won’t exist, as surely they will, but offline just doesn’t and won’t spread like years gone by!

You might want to get to know a few thought leaders sooner rather than later, or better yet consider becoming one!

Be The Change,
Lee

Well, after living through one of those amazing days and riding the high it has reminded me of the common cold. Now that may sound silly at first, but when you think about how easy the common cold spreads from sneeze, to door knob to another victim laying in bed with fevered night sweats; the viral nature of excitement seems simple.

When people in my circle are excited and smiling… I am too.

When ideas get shared with excitement… I get excited.

When a stranger shares their excitement with me… it rubs off!

Excitement is very similar to the common cold, at least in how easily it can spread.

Excitement is catchy. Go ahead spread it around

Enjoy today’s broadcast on Face To Face marketing, and I look forward to your comments.

Think of it this way.

If three companies were sending similar PDF proposals to a potential buyer, and all things being created equal the documents where about the same, the company who added a personalized video message, product demonstration or other dynamic video content would STAND OUT in a crowd. Does it guarantee you WIN the business? No, but in the short term until everyone is using VIDEO you will be memorable.

Plus adding video to PDF’s, I have found, is just plain fun.

In the early phase of this technology its is free for readers, but if you are producing a PDF with video then you need Adobe’s Professional version of Acrobat. It’s not cheap, but as an owner of Adobe Professional who has already closed deals using video in PDF I feel it is well worth the investment.

You can get the Free Adobe Reader  that handles video here:  Get Adobe Reader

To produce PDF’s with video you will need Acrobat Professional 9 or above:  Get Adobe Professional

Please tell me if you disagree with my experience, but this past week of my life I have seen added value at work! Yes, added value may be cliche and even an over used term, but when it is genuine it is a game changer!!! Too often I hear companies, sales people and professionals try and over deliver or add value in the same way. If I offer you the same ‘added value’ service as everyone else does, then it no longer achieves it’s purpose! Most likely, it makes me come across the exact same as my competitors, and in a competitive world that just doesn’t cut the mustard!

This week I gave away expert Internet Marketing advice to businesses who expected to be sold something. This week was a game changer, and it was all because of ‘added value’!

How do you add value in a way that differentiates you from your competition?

Your answer could be your personal game changer!

The idea of writing a book called Is Customer Service Dead, came to me a few years back when I was completing a chapter in my first book entitled, ‘Bend Over & Apologize.’ In that chapter, amongst other things, I recounted a bad experience with a pair of Hush Puppy dress shoes that ended with me couriering my dirty footwear directly to the CEO of Hush Puppies, Inc. My customer service is dead story ended with me being a semi-satisfied Hush Puppy owner, but I know my story literally pales in comparison to the hundreds of thousands of personal stories, both good & bad just screaming to be collected into a book.

Let’s face it, we have all personally experienced, or at the very least, heard way too many gut wrenching customer service horror stories that usually end up fading away, and over time are forgotten. Even worse, there are great customer service stories that never get told, and that is a true shame!

Not anymore…

There are several ways I will be collecting people’s stories for Is Customer Service Dead:

(A)   People can comment on this blog post. If you or someone you know has a story to tell just click the comment button below and spill your guts. Make sure your email is valid, as if your story is selected for inclusion in the book, I will need to get in touch with you.

(B)   Soon people will be able to  comment on www.IsCustomerServiceDead.net (June 2009)

(C)  You or anyone can email your story to leeraito@gmail.com

There has to be some pretty crazy stories out there, and we are all dying to hear them. Even if you just want to answer the question, “Is Customer Service Dead?” I look forward to your response!