Following on the success of last year I'm offering my live, online webinars again this year. These 1 hour presentations are designed to quickly get you up to speed on topics like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), social media marketing, blogging for business, using Facebook for business, the most effective ways to maintain your website and much more. These sessions are also valuable for small business people and nonprofit professionals who need to know enough to avoid internet scams and over-priced services. For example, what are the deliverables you should get in a search engine marketing service? What is Google Analytics and why should it be a part of any SEO package? How often and what sort of content should you be posting on social media? All that's required is to be online with your favorite device, if you want to participate in the question and answer period you'll get best results with a computer and headphones (or earbuds). There are 12 sessions in all and if you miss the live session on Wednesday night you can log in and view a video replay afterwards. As with my Web Labs I'm offering a nice discount for a Season Pass. While individual passes are a great value at $15 each, a Season Pass is just $144 which saves you $34. With a money-back guarantee you have nothing to lose and as professional development it's even a tax write-off.  See the full webinar list and sign up. 

I'm really excited to announce that all of the details are coming together for my upcoming Pixel Lava Webs Lab series. While I got a ton of great reviews last year, students all said the same thing - that they never got around to putting their new knowledge into action. That gave me the idea of creating these live, presenter-led sessions where we work together to build up our online marketing. In the same way that services like Blue Apron deliver a ready-to-make meal, each Web Lab features a standalone project with step-by-step instructions. I'll begin with a demo and then we'll get to work. My goal is for every student to leave every session with a new, ready to use project. The sessions are also a great way to get the support of like-minded small business owners and nonprofit professionals. By working together week by week, we'll motivate each other to stay on track and provide the accountability to GET THINGS DONE. To encourage students to take advantage of the whole series I've created a super deep discount of $385 for a season pass - that's 50% off. If you run a small business or nonprofit I encourage you to join us. You CAN bring in more clients, buyers, donors, volunteers, patients, visitors, etc. and I will show you how. With a money-back guarantee you have nothing to lose and as professional development it's even a tax write-off . Get all the details!

Last spring I gave a presentation called "A Holistic Approach to Online Marketing" at the San Diego campus of Bastyr University. The audience was students studying to be naturopathic doctors. Some of them will graduate and open their own practices, while others will search for jobs. To that end, I talked about ways that they can begin to establish an online presence for themselves. Whether the goal is to cultivate one's identity as a subject matter expert to attract new clients or to enhance employability, the process is the same. Afterwards I realized that these simple ideas apply to anyone looking to move beyond their current job so here, based on my own 10+ years of hard-knocks experience, is a simplified plan for starting your own business.

People are selfish. We have to be. In our daily deluge of information and demands it's up to us to look out for ourselves and the things we care about. So when you want to promote a new product, service, event, etc. the first thing to ask yourself is "Why should anyone care about this?". Clearly you want me to care for your own good reasons, but why should I care? The core marketing concept of What's In It For Me (WIIFM) boosts your promotions through the use of psychology. By speaking to people's self interest you reach them more effectively than by simply pushing your own agenda. Here are some examples of how you can improve your promotions using this simple idea.  ​

"What I can do to get more traffic to my site? My competitor has an ugly site  but they are getting lots of press, how? I don't have money to spend on marketing, how do I get that first customer? How do I get a never-ending conveyor belt of clients?" Those are some questions I've gotten recently and perhaps you're wondering the same thing. Whether you're running a business or nonprofit, a stream of cheerful buyers handing us work (or just money) would be great! But marketing takes effort so here I present to you my own, home-brew recipe for website success, my Website Love Potion #9. 

Email and voicemail are the cornerstones of how many of us work now. These valuable tools keep us in the loop and allow us to work any time, anywhere. But they also have a dark side - they unnecessarily gobble up a ton of our time. Do you love emailing and listening to voicemails? Do you wish you had more of these every day? If so, then skip this. But if not, read on! Based on my experiences with real world clients over the course of the past year, I humbly offer these SIX simple tips to spend less time emailing, dealing with voicemails and even texting. 

Without a doubt, email marketing is a great way to communicate with people who are interested in your organization. But there are definitely some right and wrong ways to go about it. Done correctly, Email Marketing can be a real advantage. Done incorrectly it can be almost useless AND create a dangerous business liability. Here are my tips on why using a service like Constant Contact or Mail Chimp is much better than saving a few dollars and using your personal email account. ​