Blog
Dave Johnson ran a small rug cleaning business in Central City. He had a name for the business that told clients exactly what he did – Dave's Superior Carpet Cleaning. After doing some research on what other cleaners in the area charged, he determined that his rates were right in the middle – not too high, and not too low.
Dave had higher aspirations, though. He wanted to do better than just squeek by. He wanted to make enough money to support his family comfortably, but he also wanted to have the time to spend with them. Dave wanted to make more money than his competition, and work fewer hours. He saw some of the cleaning businesses in other cities with their large, flashy trucks and new he could do just as well himself.
While Dave was looking for help, he came across ProfitAsAnExpert.com – Agile' Marketing's training system on increasing his wealth as a Recognized Expert. Dave looked it over and decided that the cost was worth it, and he'd give it a try.
Originally the term masterpiece referred specifically to a piece of work by an apprentice or journeyman who wanted to become a master craftsman in the European guild system of the Middle Ages. That piece was often displayed in the guild house as evidence that the worker had sufficient skill and expertise to warrant being a master at his chosen craft.
I spent the morning driving around, dropping off award certificates. One of our clients is the review site CNYDining.com , and they asked us to create and deliver award certificates to the last several places to which they'd given 4 star or better reviews. So, loaded up with the freshly printed awards, I made my rounds of the city of Syracuse.
I realize that it's the Friday before the holiday that officially kicks off the summer season, but every place I stopped – except one – had the second string on today. My first stop was a donut shop that's only open early in the morning. A part-timer was on, and she thought the award was cool, and put it aside for the owner. Things went. . . well, not exactly down hill from there, but things started to get skewed. I visited a place that didn't open 'til noon, and scooted off again. The next guy just shrugged and smiled. The following restaurant was the one where the manager was still on duty. However, she looked like I was presenting her with a bill. I explained what it was, and she cheered right up.
I've gotten 3 new clients who wanted me to put together web sites for them. I pitched all of them sites based on WordPress software. It was originally a blogging software, but it's expanded to become a true Content Management Service (CMS). All of them agreed, so I'm putting together a sort of recipe book for all the sites I'm managing that are based on WordPress. And I'm not managing all my clients' sites! There are at least two others I can think of off the top of my head that run on WordPress where they have someone else managing it.
So we are managing twelve – that's 12 – sites running on WordPress right now. I may have a couple more who will ask to be switched over in the future. About half of those are for the same client, and they're running a similar setup on each site. They're looking to collect names & email address so that they can cultivate those visitors, so they're putting most of the content behind membership walls. The first level is free – meant to give the visitors access to a taste of what my client offers at a higher price. Most of them (based on statistical probability) won't go for it. But the ones who do should realize significant benefit from their paid memberships.
We have a client who runs a tiny, local restaurant review site. As you may know, we advise our clients that advertising – paying to put yourself in front of others – should be the last thing they consider when putting together their marketing plans. Not because "it's a rip-off" or some other negative reason, but because there are a ton – hell, two tons of things you can do for free or at minimal cost that will put you in front of your audience before finding a medium and paying them for some space.
But in examining or client's options, we had to agree that is was time to begin to advertise. We wanted to put their web site in front of people in their area who were looking for "restaurant reviews" right now, but we didn't want it to cost an arm and a leg. This is a tiny site, and is still not breaking even. So we went with Google AdWords, and set a daily budget that would barely get you a cup of hot stuff at your favorite coffee house.