In The Boring Truth About Internet Marketing I outlined seven ways to make marketing easier for you as an online business owner. This time I want to talk about strategic planning, or more specifically, why you’re probably making it way too hard. I’m going to strip away all manner of complexity and creativity so you [...]

The Internet may be relatively new, but any entrepreneur seeking to grow a business online is faced with incredible complexity. From what kind of website to build, to what to say, to how to create real conversation in a digital space, there are innumerable permutations and combinations to choose from. Yet the most effective marketing [...]

As certain as life precludes death and taxes, so does the ability to sell preclude success in business. And success in business means we get to keep doing our good work for the people who need it. But what happens if we can’t master the art of selling? What if, no matter how hard we [...]

When you hire someone like me to help you with your marketing or your copy, you might expect the transaction to go something like this: 1) You give me money. 2) I give you brilliant strategy or web copy. I’m simplifying, but in general this is what folks expect when they outsource creative work. From [...]

In a blog post called The Future of Blogs is Paid Access, bestselling author Julien Smith explores the trend of monetizing “weak ties” with your audience. It’s the one-to-many model of business where you charge more people less money for access to your content, but only a little bit of you. Think membership sites or [...]