Preneur Marketing - The Blog of Entrepreneur Pete Williams

Julian Cole over at Adspace Pioneers has published his second edition of the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs, which had also been included in the newly redesigned BandT Magazine(see pages 35-38).

And PreneurMarketing.com made the list on Julians’ site at 24, but 22 in the mag (Not sure how that works, but I’ll take it.)

The methodology for the Top 50 Marketing Blogs is rated in terms of how many people read the blog (Alexa Ranking 20%), how well it rates on Google (Google Page Rank 20%), how many people are linking to their content (Technorati 40%), and a subjective score of how relevant the content is to Australian marketing, which is rated by Julian Cole (Pioneer Rating 20%).

A BIG THANKS to Julian for the hard work and well done to all the bloggers who have been included in the Top 50 Marketing Blogs.
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I just twittered this but thought I should share it on the blog for those that don’t follow me.

If you are into niche marketing this is a must watch video.. and really hits home the power of video, podcasts and info-marketing.

For those that don’t know Gary Vaynerchuk - Gary captured national attention as a businessman and Internet celebrity with his show http://tv.winelibrary.com/. Gary’s fame can be attributed to his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business building.

You can also follow Gary on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/garyvee

One of the best pieces of dating advice I ever received was this: “Picture your ideal partner, work out what THEY would want in a partner… and become THAT person”

This process of getting what you want by first becoming what others want, recently clicked with me again… but this time in a marketing sense when I was reviewing audio’s from Eben Pagan’s Altitude Program.

In one of the sessions, Eben talks about the importance of creating a customer avatar to help define your niche.

Now, the term avatar traditionally refers to a ‘computer user’s representation of himself/herself or alter ego, and used in computer games or on internet forums and other communities’… BUT in the context of what Eben was talking about, your customers avatar is simply a ‘representation of your typical customer’ ..

A possible customer avatar for RetailSecrets.com.au is - Mary is 43 years old and runs a retail clothing store in a small town. She has two young kids in school and although the store is doing well and covering all the bills, it’s not meeting the goals she knows she deserves. Every month she has to spend more $$ in marketing to get people to come through the doors, is open minded about taking advice and learning… and is actively looking for the tools to grow her business & increase referrals.

Now, by creating (& even naming your customers avatar) you can imagine you are speaking directly with that person when creating your marketing material. This really strengthens the ‘messages to market match’, ensures your communications are more personal, which in-turn increases conversions, and it also helps you define your niche and really engage your prospects.

But do you want to know the real trick in all this? (this is where I get all voodoo and tie it back to the dating advice)

The secret is to create the customer avatar and not only work out what products and services they want, “but work out what sort of business they would want to deal with.. and become that business.”

In this day and age, people don’t simply buy a product … they interact with a business. Creating the right product is only step 1, creating the right brand is how you win.

p.s. Also, if you are on his list, you would have just received an email from my good mate Ed Dale. As he mentioned in his email, given the economic times there is a recent interview with Warren Buffett that is a MUST WATCH.

You NEED to understand what is really going on in the economic world. Make no mistake - there are issues - BUT- The same technology that we use to market our wares can be used to create fear and panic like we have never seen in history.

In the foreword to a new book, Mark Joyner points out that the internet marketing crowd may, on the surface, share some common features with a cult:

“A unique language understood only by those in the cult, “guru” figures of whom many blindly follow, and bizarre rites and rituals.”

Well….

- Unique language: squeeze pages, optin rate, conversion rate, PPC, CPM, CPA
- Guru figures: do I even need to go there?
- Bizarre rites and rituals: launching new websites at the drop of a hat, constantly searching for better tools (which spring up every day), working at all hours of the day or night.

While Joyner’s comparison may in some sense be accurate, there’s another word that better describes this collection of eclectic individuals we know as “internet marketers”.

Family.

Skeptical?

Think about it: in what other business arena do the major players:

- Freely share their biggest “secrets”?
- Promote each others’ products and services?
- Sell to each other, and to each other’s customers?

I can’t think of any other business endeavor where successful business owners are so open and transparent with their colleagues and potential competitors (“newbies”).

And Joel Comm has now taken this transparency to a whole new level.

You may know Joel as the guy who figured out how to make Google’s Adsense a money-pumping hands-free oil well and then turned around and wrote a book about what he learned…

In the New York Times Best Seller The Adsense Code, he pulled back the curtain so others can duplicate what he did.

Joel’s new book –the one with the foreword by Mark Joyner—documents the history of the internet marketing “family”…

Click Here to Order: Stories of the World’s Most Successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs is the most complete background of Internet marketing that exists today.

Joel retells story after story of dozens of today’s internet marketers: how they got started and the paths they took to become successful.

Once you finish reading this book, you will never look at Internet Marketing in the same way. Not only do you get an inside look at marketers including:

- John Resse
- John Carlton
- Michel Fortin
- Willie Crawford
- Armand Morin

Plus many others, often in their own words…

You also get the little “nuggets” of practical and strategic wisdom that Joel has deftly included too.
So the book is part family history, part marketing education, and part inspiration.

You might already be part of the family, if like me you:

- Know what a squeeze page is
- Spend time obsessing over your “opt-in rate”
- Check your Clickbank or Paypal account twenty times a day
- Continually search for better-performing keywords
- Hang out with your online friends more than with your “offline” buddies (did someone say twitter?)

…then congratulations! You are already a member of the “family”.

If not, the fastest way to join this family is to read the book!

Click Here to Order ‘Click Here to Order’ (yes, I wrote that right)

Pete

P.S. Don’t miss your chance to get your exclusive peek into the world of successful Internet Marketing Entrepreneurs, and take a shortcut to joining them.

P.P.S. Looks like the book version of the 30 Day Challenge is getting a lot closer to becoming a reality. We’ve had an offer from a publisher, so i’ll keep you all in the loop on that one.. Stay Tuned.

“Clearly, the problem of email overload is taking a toll on all our time, productivity, and sanity, mainly because most of us lack a cohesive system for processing our messages and converting them into appropriate actions as quickly as possible.” - Merlin Mann