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Free Sales Content - Use at Your Own Risk

Written by: Dave Kurlan

Article Overview: I can't count and may not even know about all of the portals now on the web that feature subject matter experts, content, free downloads, articles and tips from people like me. It's generally a good thing, at first, until someone like me loses control of his intellectual property - the articles I write.

Free Sales Content - Use at Your Own Risk

I can't count and may not even know about all of the portals now on the web that feature subject matter experts, content, free downloads, articles and tips from people like me. It's generally a good thing, at first, until someone like me loses control of his intellectual property - the articles I write.

Some sites run my articles with my permission. Others simply include the RSS feed. Others run teasers with links back to my Blog. These are all OK. However there are some that run my articles, copy my articles, take excerpts from my articles or rewrite my articles and pass them off as their articles. That's when it becomes a generally bad thing.

One site that said they would change that is ilearningGlobal.tv. They claim to have the exclusive technology that will stream high-def, full screen content from experts like Dennis Waitley, Bob Proctor, and me directly to your desktop and protect the content from being pirated. Sounded good to me. They invited me to join their faculty, offered a revenue sharing model and said they would fly me to their studios to record my content at their cost. Sounded even better...until my third conversation with them when they were more interested in the 3,000 of you that visit this blog each week, the 10,000 that subscribe to Baseline Selling Tips and my network of sales development experts that provide our world-class sales assessments to companies around the world. Why? The engine underneath this cool concept is...Multi-Level Marketing. They wanted me to generate a down line with a few key people that would really market it. Market what exactly? $79 per person, per month subscriptions to "their" content. And the revenue share? 3%. Wow - is that appealing! I've never been willing to go near the MLM space, either as participant or consultant. And what makes them think they can even sell these subscriptions?

One site that I thought had a lot of promise and to whom I agreed to let feature my content is CanDoGo.com. Their premise was to feature nuggets of content rather than content in its entirety. They too were going to sell subscriptions but recently changed the model and went to a free service.

One of the sites I particularly like because of their design and richness of content from experts like me is EvanCarmichael.com. Two more that do a great job of culling the best from the best are EyesOnSales.com and TopSalesExperts.com. And then there are sites like Guy Kawasaki's AllTop.com, which aggregates the top content on a variety of subjects. And then there is the webinar version of all this, BusinessExpertWebinar.com, which features various experts in webinar format all through the day.

Today's Lessons:

I still hate Multi-Level Marketing. If you can invest even an hour a week in their business, think about the impact that additional hour per week will have on your existing business!

If you have something that others want you have leverage. As soon as you give them what they want your leverage goes away.

If someone dangles an offer that sounds too good to be true they probably want something for nothing.

You get what you pay for. Much of the free content out there (not mine, of course) is either contradicting, regurgitated, unproven, inapplicable or stupid. And there is a huge gap between a great article on strategy or tactics and your ability to apply that strategy or tactic, as written, at your company.

Watch your step.

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  MANAGING RISK
  Content Strategy: The Key to Developing Effective Content
  Using FREE to Build Your Small Business Brand

Article Tags: baseline, blog, bob proctor, dennis waitley, development experts, excerpts, fly, high def, intellectual property, multi level marketing, participant, portals, premise, revenue share, screen content, subject matter experts, subscriptions, world class sales



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Re: Meta Tags - [quote="ChrisH":tzc1bohg]I'm just curious what you all think -- - How important do you think meta tags are? If the content is keyword optimized and they are being used correctly (as per Google's current instructions) how important are meta tags?? Chris[/quote:tzc1bohg] Metatags were very important 10 years ago. Now, search engines are smarter... There are 2 very important things on your page: 1/ Page title: make sure to place some keywords in your title (avoid title like "welcome to my website, great information resource". You are wasting prime keyword real estate. 2/ Content. Content. Content. Content. Content. Oh, did I mention content?? Your content as to mention your main keywords several times. 3/ <h> and <b> tags are very important too. They tell search engines you emphasize these keywords.
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Simple way to avoid Cold Calling - Gary, A chiropractor I work with hates cold calling (me too!) and he uses a technique to warm people up to using his services - it's so simple! In Sales your dealing with 3 pools of people: 1. Strangers 2. Prospects 3. Returning Customers You need to move people from one pool to the next. We'll concentrate on #1 and #2 as it's most relevant to your question. My Clients does the following (you just have to tailor it to your situation - be creative). My Client (we'll call him Bob) Bob leverages his time and resources to only get people that need his offer (pain relief) to put their hand up. Dealing with Strangers can get expensive and they don't like to be told what to do as they have no trust or relationship built with him. So to get Strangers to put their hands up he writes up an offer with a free report on a particular pain relief - let's say lower back pain (note: he can simply just change lower back pain to neck pain and have a new report). and uses multiple marketing vehicles to promote the Free report - magazines, newspaper, forums, postcards, private clinics etc. The only people picking up this information are the very people Bob would like as customers as they have Lower back pain. Bob's Free report ends with him stating his services and includes a Free in-house Consultation with no obligation. You'd be surprised at how easily Bob converts Strangers into Prospects. Note: They become prospects when they ask for the Free Guide and in exchange provide their contact details. This gives Bob unlimited opportunity to contact them for the Free in-house consultation with no obligation to continue using him. At this stage Bob's ability to close the sale lies in his office providing good customer service, Bob's ability to help the prospect and provide value at the free in-house consultation. Notice, he hasn't had to pick up the phone to COLD-CALL his Stranger pool or his Prospect pool. Hope that example helps to increase your prospecting!
Re: Best looking social networking site? - Hi Kevin [quote:3h76yt08]With so many social networking sites to pick and choose from, what influences your decision to join a particilar site? Is it just your friends, the content, people using it or looks??[/quote:3h76yt08] For me, the most essential criteria in selecting a Social Networking Site is its Content followed closely by popularity- in terms of daily visitors. Then comes the Content followed by the Friends and looks. Most of do social networking to attract traffic to their website(s) and as such the Content and Popularity of the site are important. btw, the list doesn't have digg or netscape or del.is.us which are the top social media sites.


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