Startup Chat

In episode 29 of Web Domination, I discuss 12 great ways how to reach big online influencers and start to gain audiences for your own business. iTunes | RSS New RSS feeds Web Domination RSS feed Main Informly blog Agency Talk podcast feed 12 ways to reach influencers online Do unsolicited reviews Perform solicited reviews -  leave one right now on iTunes Commenting on posts on other sites that mention the influencers Taking their advice and implementing it, applying the apprentice model. Send them traffic but tell them before hand and ask them a question to make the traffic more relevant. Give them your best content. Send them customers. Build an influencer list. Be a customer and buy relevant products from them. Identify where influencers spend their time and then do the same. Be prepared to "pay to play" - it is an investment. Find an area where they are weak and you are strong. Ask for their opinion. Mentions Dan's agency talk podcast James Schramko (Own the Racecourse and Super Fast Business) James' interview with Jake from the Multimedia Marketing Show Dan's Traffic Grab review Kiss Metrics, Lucid Chart and VirtualStaffFinder The Next Web Chris Dietrich Rob Hanly Ned Dwyer from Tweaky Billy Ryan from PixelLeverage.com Justin Fulcher Dynamite Circle by Dan Andrews Tech Tip World Time Buddy (WTB) is a cross between a time zone converter, a world clock converter, and an online meeting scheduler. http://www.worldtimebuddy.com/time-converter Reviews Craig Ernst :  "Though a relatively new show, Web Domination has become one of my favorites." Damian Ruse: "What you hear is what you get.

In episode 28 of web Domination, the final episode in my content marketing marathon, I chat to outsourcing legend Chris Ducker. iTunes | RSS Chris' links Chris Ducker Live 2 Sell Virtual Staff Finder Chris on Twitter Location 63 Chris' first podcast episode (now live) Mentions Dynamite Circle Dan & Ian from the Lifestyle Business Podcast

Today I chat to Rob Hanly (aka spiderman) and get his 3 top tips for running a successful web design company. iTunes | RSS Rob's Tips Lead generation Bring proactive Build processes Rob's links RobHanly.com Rob on Twitter Mentions Neville Medhora Dan's content domination email course Brendon Sinclair's interview Tech tip Google Calendar used for scheduling work, reminders, appointments and working on Android and iOS.

Today I chat to one of Australia's most well known small business experts Robert Gerrish. Listen in to discover how he started and grew Flying Solo and why he enjoys working in the nude. iTunes | RSS Robert's links Work in the nude day! Contributing to Flying Solo Flying Solo Flying Solo on Facebook Flying Solo on Twitter Flying Solo book More on Robert, Sam, Jodie, Peter, Jayne & Lisa and the Flying Solo team Robert Gerrish on Linked In Mentions Content Smackdown with Dan Andrews, James Schramko and me on Jake Hower's podcast. Dan's Linked In profile (please endorse me for Portals)

This week I chat with John Logar from Make Every Day a Pay Day and get his top 3 tips for running a profitable web design agency. iTunes | RSS John's tips Focus on high value clients Focus on monthly income objectives and income generating activities Have a vision and work with an end in mind Tech tip Camtasia for capturing the screen on Windows.   John's links Make Every Day a Pay Day JohnLogar.com John's income board Here is the profit board John talked about during the episode. Click the image for a larger view. Mentions Recurring revenue models - I discussed this on the Brendon Sinclair episode. Screenflow Dropbox

Ned Dwyer gave up large strategy projects to focus on $39 website customisation jobs. Listen to the interview to find out why. iTunes | RSS Ned's links Tweaky Tweaky Developers application Ned on Twitter WPMU Mentions Mark Harbottle Net Promotor Score     WordPress Drupal Appearance on This Week in Startups Chris Sacca interview (awesome interview)

This week I chat with my buddy Brendon Sinclair from Tailored.com.au. Brendon wrote the original web design business kit and has loads of value to share for people in the business. iTunes | RSS Brendon's Tips Building recurring business models Finding solutions to problems - not selling Branding Bonus tips Get rid of the bad clients Never take clients back Tech tip Basecamp and Highrise by 37 Signals. Mentions Informly James Schramko Josh from iOnline

Dan Andrews is back (see his last appearance here) on the show to discuss leadership, content, podcasting and tribes. iTunes | RSS Dan's links Lifestyle Business Podcast Dynamite Circle Tropical MBA (second podcast and Dan's blog) Stats RSS subscribers 3,500 Paid community Dynamite Circle has 520+ members ($32 / month) 18% travelled to BKK Dan's Tips Generate regular content at least one piece of marketing a week Meet in person (it's must easier to motivate people after you've met them) Serve your customers It matters what people think of your content and think of you Integrity is the most important thing People look up to people who are doing what they want Mentions Ileane from Basic Blog Tips Tropical MBA Philippines Sean Kaye On Writing Well (Amazon) Chris Guillebeau James Schramko Dan's post The Chops Index Jake from the Multimedia Marketing Show Sam Carpenter Tim Ferriss Adam Carolla

Agency Talk is a podcast where I chat to successful web design agency owners about their top 3 tips for running a great web design business. In episode 1 I chat to web design / marketing agency owner and online marketing coach Tim Conley. I hope you like it. iTunes | RSS Tim's top tips Find a unique approach to the market Learn how to market Learn how to sell Tech Tip Tim's tech tip is Trello. I'm actually using Trello for my content marketing marathon which you can see in this post (I've put the board below to see how it looks). More from Tim Foolish Adventure Show Tim on Twitter  Mentions Tweaky How User Voice is using Trello James Schramko Seth Godin Startup School (pretty sure I totally butchered that horse / rider analogy) Joe Polish Gold Coast Co Working Brian Clark from CopyBlogger Gary Helbert Spin Selling from Neil Rackham

James Schramko our most popular guest so far is back for round 2 (see his first appearance here) to talk about owning the racecourse and how he has 5-10 years worth of ideas! Direct Download | iTunes | RSS James' links superfastbusiness.com (James main site) owntheracecourse.com (training modules) trafficsure.com (done for you OTR service) fastwebformula.com (private community) silvercircle.com (elite mastermind) internetmarketingspeed.com (podcast) freedomocean.com (podcast) James on Youtube Other Mentions James' first appearance on Web Domination Wistia John from 5 by 5 media High level of what Own The Racecourse (OTR) is Video-based authority building based on ongoing news and tips updates 2-5 minute videos putting out 3-6 per week 1 - Overview 2.  Team 3 - Setup 4 - Gathering ideas 5 - Create content 6 - Production 7 - Publish 8 - Syndicate 9 - Measure 10 - Refine James' Tips on Gathering ideas Have information come to you so you can get them when you want to do the content Using RSS to subscribe to top news websites Team member sending James a summary of the industry news events Meetups Coaching clients Forums Help desk Replies to emails Video analytics (Wistia and Youtube) - The team make a list of what people like and dislike to inform future videos Heatmaps and slit tests Staff member goes through forum and sends James a list of topics to talk about Other tips Use Wistia for private videos for better analytics Make topics broader at first and them get more specific as the video goes on Set up triggers of some sort (i.e. a calendar alert) Some stats 50,000 views on youtube 300-500 views per video 1,000 downloads a day of audio files all up 20,000 subscribers 5000 fans on facebook 20,000 uniques a month 6-7 minutes time on site 1,500 pages indexed 300 Youtube subscribers Other Fast Web Formula members owning their racecourses John from Web Design Business Kits Casey from Real Fit Women Justin Meadowns from Evergreen Profit This is a small sample of members of Fast Web Formula who are owning the racecourse.

Sean Kaye is back this week & I continue with the content marketing theme by discussing podcasting for profit (see parts 1 and 2 here). or Download the file or visit iTunes. Sean's links Rapid Action Podcasting Sean Kaye dot com Rapid Action SEO Rapid Action Writing WSO Backstage Mentions Kate Luella My interview on Jake Hower's podcast I Love Marketing Pay now podcasting with Dan Andrews and Tim Conley Fast Web Formula Blubrry Amazon S3 Lead Player Rapid Action Podcasting Jeff Walker Audacity You can see James Schramko's interview tips on my podcasting guide Jason Calacanis from This Week in Startups James and Tim from Freedom Ocean Adam Curry Interview with Noah Shanok from Stitcher on This Week in Startups Andrew Shaperone Monetization options for podcasts Product placement Affiliate marketing Advertising Service back-end Other info on WSO Backstage Listener to conversion rate of 1-2%  17 minutes+ time on site Every page has page rank 2 or more Traffic from press releases and referral traffic / direct traffic only 6% from Google. Here is one of Sean's press releases Here's one of Sean's videos on youtube (podcast translated into video with a slide)

John Dumas has grown his podcast Entrepreneur on Fire from scratch to 100,000 downloads a month in 3 months. His focus and work ethic is inspiring and I went in depth in this chat to find out exactly how he went about dominating the podcasting world in such a short amount of time. or Download the file or visit iTunes. Notes How he got started Scratched his own itch - wanted his own daily podcast Has interviewed 115 people in 3 months since September Stacked up 40 episodes before even launching Got people sharing from day 1 and his own network Having a new podcast a day sent download numbers through the roof and boosted iTunes organic traffic Stats Straight to new and noteworthy in iTunes from launch for 8 weeks 100,000 downloads a month not including Stitcher Downloaded in more than 100 countries 170 iTunes reviews already 15 to 40 email signups a day (already at 800 subscribers) Workload Edits all of his own episodes Generally interviews 10 people per week more often than not on Mondays 3 full time virtual assistants - 1 working US timezone hours Pre-schedules tweets etc Working at least 70 hours a week Does all the guest outreach himself Does all editing himself as well Promotion tips Asked listeners for reviews Asked guests to rate and review the show Asked guests to promote show Sent $5 Starbucks vouchers to guests Strategically went after big names with big audiences $5 Starbacks gift cart for each guest Tips for getting guests Worked his way up from lower level guests through to higher level guests Contacts direct via their website Mentions the size of his audience etc to get attention Went to physical in person events and told them what he was doing and asked people to be on the show Used testimonials and accolades from original guests to get higher level guests Emails to guests mention other guests he has had on  Monetisation Advertising a possibility Podplatform.com Ignite community Show structure Will integrate feedback over time on the structure of the show Wanted to keep control over the pace and the structure of the show Daily format has a lot of benefits including if there is a bad one, it's forgotten about in a day Equipment Adobe Audition (you can also use Garage Band or Audacity - my Podcasting guide goes through these cheaper options) Heil PR40 mic Interview skills Learnt the skills over time didn't have any experience doing interviews before the podcast Got a coach / mentor  Other tips FOCUS - Follow One Course Until Success John's links Entrepreneur on Fire Pod Platform Ignite community

Sean Kaye is back this week after giving us a bunch of stories last week in episode 20. or Download the file or visit iTunes. Ways to not make money online Not enough confidence / fear of failure No sales / persuasion skills Not being a student of the game - you can learn from everything, even the bad stuff Not being able to make advice actionable for them Not doing the things they are good at Getting frustrated and getting in a downward spiral No monetization plans, building a freebie audience Having a great product and the ability to sell it No relationships Stopping marketing once the sale occurs Laziness and trying to take shortcuts Desperation Self sabotage Sean's companies Sean Kaye dot com Rapid Action SEO Rapid Action Writing Rapid Action Podcasting Mentions Dan Andrews James Schramko & Own the Racecourse WSO Backstage Podcast Evernote Fast Web Formula  

Sean Kaye has been hustling on the Internet since before the Internet existed (if that's possible). In this episode he shares a range of stories from over the years. http://media.blubrry.com/webdomination/p/wpcurve.com/wp-content/uploads/Podcast/Episode_20.mp3 or Download the file or visit iTunes. Sean's companies Sean Kaye dot com Rapid Action SEO Rapid Action Writing Rapid Action Podcasting Mentions Commodore 64 Bank of Novascocia x86 Lane Cove Tunnel Project 37 Signals Brendon Burchard & Experts Academy Jeff Walker - Product Launch Formula Frank Kern Mass Control James Schramko Fast Web Formula  

Travis Jamison from Supremacy SEO is a grey hat SEO specialist. This week he steps us through a step by step grey hat brand building strategy. He also makes an offer that hopefully Pat Flynn can't refuse. or Download the file or visit iTunes. Pat Flynn offer Travis wants to take on Pat in an SEO challenge. If Pat loses he has to interview Travis on his podcast. Either way Travis will donate $1,000 USD to a charity of Pat's choice. Pat, if you are reading feel free to email me dan@inform.ly to make it happen. Mentions Pat Flynn James Schramko Hootsuite The Challenge 5 Minute Friday videos Andrew Warner Supremacy SEO Grey hat brand building formula 1. Brandable domain Focus on a brandable domain name and do the traditional brand building that you would do regardless of SEO. Have one main brand website Don't worry about keywords in the domain 2. Content / long tail Build quality content Always use long content - 2,000+ words Look at the top results in Google and model off that Focus on buyer keywords Add media to your pages (pictures, videos) - google loves it. Take other images and crop / resize and re-name after keyword Link out to high authority sites but not to your competitors. Better to be relevant but Travis doesn't see this as essential. Doesn't bother with no follow or do follow on the outgoing links 3. Pre-reputation management Review sites and Q&A sites Don't wait till your brand is hurt before paying for reputation management Provides social credibility, buffers against bad press and helps rankings to own more sites in your niche Make sure you rank for reviews of your products Q&A sites - paying a team to ask and then answer questions Review sites - set up a site as an affiliate site that you own  Social Signals Buying Facebook and Twitter follows from Fiverr Uses social signals for the main site - at the moment Google not smart enough to know the likes are gamed Not all social profiles are indexed Can get more quality bought likes and tweets Social profiles Setup accounts on the main social sites Can use these to outrank bad reviews later on Travis uses Hootsuite 4. Feeder sites Sending grey hat links through to feeder sites  5-40 pages ok content focusing on brand keywords These sites server as backlinks and traffic for the main site High quality backlinks should pay for themselves Uses keywords for domains for the feeder sites - uses keyword tool Uses a team to write the content and update WordPress Banner goes at the header of each of the feeder sites Puts a bit of text up the top before the banner so as to not be slapped by Panda Images pass plenty of link juice, Travis usually links back to the site with keywords links as well Unsure whether Google looks at both links on the page but it helps for relevancy anyway 5.