Entrepreneurs

Jeff Bezos – The Inspiring Story of the Richest Man on the Planet

“Jeff is crazy — crazy like a fox. He has a very clear vision and design.”
—   Nadia Shouraboura, a former Amazon executive.
Jeff Bezos is not just a rich businessman; he is the richest person alive on the planet.
He started his venture from a garage and turned it into the most popular eCommerce shopping portal on earth.
He is the founder and CEO of Amazon.com, the biggest E-Commerce marketplace in the world.
Hiscreation Amazon has catapulted him into the billionaire’s club.
At present, Jeff Bezos is $56 billion richer than the second richest person in the world – Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.    
Just like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos is an avid risk taker and a ruthless boss, who has zero tolerance for complacency.
On the personal front, Bezos is a generous person and a “relentless” romantic. His life revolves around romance and innovation.
Bezos’ life is a story of twists and turns, the invisible hand of fate and his futuristic approach to businesses. He was estranged by his biological father, when he was just 17 months old.

AMAZON CEO | Jeff Bezos Biography | Success Story | Startup Stories

Net worth

According to Inc. magazine, Bezos’ total wealth has been estimated to be around $163 billion (real time net worth $139.9 billion as of January 16, 2019, according to Forbes).

So if we compare it with the average US net worth of $97,300, every $1 spent by an average American equals to $1.7 million spent by Jeff Bezos.

Passion for space travel and future technologies

Part of Bezos’ success can be attributed to the fact that he believes in future and had big dreams since his childhood.

He has also been a space nerd.

As a high school student, he wanted to save humanity by developing permanent settlements in orbiting space stations, protecting and preserving the nature on the planet Earth.

It was probably the same approach that led to the launch of his space flight services company “Blue Origin” in the year 2000.

Since the beginning, JeffBezos was passionate about space age technologies. He was quite fond of watching Star Trek TV serial as a child.

Bezos also played a cameo role in the movie Star Trek Beyond. You can spot him dressed up as an alien in the movie.

Difficult childhood as an estranged son

Bezos was born in 1964 as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen to a teenage mother, Jacklyn Gise, (16 years old at the time) and a teenage father Ted Jorgensen (barely 18 years old), in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Jeff’s mother divorced his father, when he was just 17 months old. After that the family was estranged by Jorgensen, as Gise asked him not to intervene.  
Jeff Bezos was brought up by his mom and stepdad Mike Bezos. His biological father Ted Jorgenson died in 2015 after brief illness. According to Jeff Bezos, he has no memories of his biological dad.  

Career switch from Finance to Internet

When Bezos was in the final year at Princeton University, he refused many lucrative job offers including the ones from Intel and Bell.
After getting a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, he joined a startup known as FITEL, where he learnt how to run startups. Soon he became the director of customer service in the company.
After that he joined Bankers Trust as a product manager and worked there for two years. The next company he joined was DE Shaw Co., which was a hedge fund.
His career was moving in the right orbit at the Wall Street, as he became senior Vice President at D E Shaw in 1994.
Just like Bill Gates, he was stunned to see the growth of the Internet usage by 2300% in a year. However, nobody was using the Internet for selling goods. He studied the most profitable mail order businesses and decided to sell books on the web.
One of the Greatest Speeches Ever | Jeff Bezos
Marriage Life
Jeff Bezos always wanted to get out of the third world prison and wanted a resourceful woman. He spotted one such woman in his own staff at D E Shaw Co. – Mackenzie Tuttle, an analystand novelist and married her in 1993. His wife was very supportive and instrumental in the launch of Amazon.
Moving with his wife to Seattle
Soon, Bezos quit his Wall Street job and moved to Seattle, Washington to setup his e-commerce shop.
Like the most successful businesses in the United States, Amazon also started from its humble origin in a shabby and semi-insulated garage.
Bezos’s parents were initially skeptical about their son leaving his prestigious Capital Market job to start a risky eCommerce business selling books.
However, convinced that their son was quite passionate about his new venture, they gave him their nod.
Even Bezos was apprehensive that the entire investment may go down the drain if the project doesn’t take off.
It’s important to note that the investment Bezos’s parents had done in Amazon back in 1995 was around $250,000.
Today, it’s worth more than $30 billion considering the stock value of the company.

At present, his mom Jackie and dad Mike Bezos run the Bezos Family Foundation.

Launching world’s first online bookstore

Bezos launched his E-commerce website and got it tested by some 300 of his acquaintances. It turned out to be a success as it was smoothly working across different platforms.

You’ll be surprised to know that Amazon was known as “Cadabra” in 1994.

The name was inspired from “Abracadabra” often used by magicians.
It was often misspelt by the users and staffers, so it was changed to “Relentless” and soon it was christened as Amazon, which is the name of the famous river in Latin America.
Amazon experienced meteoric success right from the beginning.
Within 6 months of its inception, it started selling books in all of the 50 states in the US and in 50 locations overseas.
So, in early 1995, the first eCommerce platform was making $20,000 per week from its sales proceeds.
Bezos hadn’t anticipated any profit in his business plan for about four to five years, but it made a profit of $5 million in the year 2001.

Early problems and software glitches

It is not that the journey of Amazon was swift and smooth.
In the early days, the platform encountered a technical glitch and it resulted in the negative amounts appearing on the invoices generated for customer orders.
Amazon systems found themselves crediting the money back to the credit cards of the customers.  Soon the management spotted the glitch and fixed it.
How Jeff Bezos Became the King of E-Commerce

Family

Bezos has three sons from his first marriage and an adopted daughter, who hails from China. He kept his children away from digital devices specially smartphones for a long time following in the footsteps of Bill Gates.

Philanthropy and generosity for good causes

Bezos supports social causes such as helping homeless families, opening preschools, and financing the same-sex marriages.
Bezos is a strong supporter of the rights of homosexuals. In 2012, an Amazon employee approached Bezos during a fundraising campaign for the cause of same sex marriage. The employee was looking for just $100,000, but the couple went far ahead and donated $2.5 million and became one of the biggest financiers for the cause in the US.
In Sept. 2018, Bezos pledged $2 billion for homeless families and expand the network of Montessori-inspired preschools in the U.S., through his charity known as Bezos Day One Fund.

Owner of the Washington Post

Bezos had bought the prestigious Washington Post group in 2013 for US$250 million. Bezos had always been a smart investor.

He had invested $1 million in Google in 1998, when it was just a startup. That investment is equal to 1 billion US dollars today.

You will be surprised to know that since the launch of the Amazon IPO, the stock price of the company has increased by 97000%.

Had you bought the stock of Amazon in February 2016 at the bargain price of $500 per share, an investment of $5000 would be worth $20,000 in the year 2019.

[Source: MSN]

Smart Entrepreneur

When Bezos launched Amazon Web Services, Netflix used to distribute its videos to millions of American households round the clock.

Bezos signed an agreement and allowed companies to use Amazon servers for the purpose. He reduced the tariff for the companies using it servers.

When he was informed that it will mean suffering loss for a long period of time, he said, “More profit means attracting more competition.”  

He first learnt about company automation during his summer job at McDonald’s in Miami as a fry cook. He worked in a kitchen where automation was implemented. He himself designed a system that was attached to a buzzer and it helped him start and finish his core tasks in time.

Entrepreneurship was in his blood and he first launched his entrepreneurial venture known as Directed Reasoning Methods (DREAM), when he was in his High School.

It was a summer education camp set up for 5th graders. His partner in this venture was his girlfriend Ursula “Uschi” Werner. [Source: MSN]

Passion for ski-fi technologies

The virtual assistant technology used at Amazon is Alexa, which is inspired from the talking computer on a Star Trek television series.
Alexa is being developed on the pattern of the computer shown on science fiction show Star Trek, which can be controlled remotely and would be AI enabled.
Jeff’s quotes
Jeff believes in reverse engineering as far as the success of Amazon is concerned.  
His famous quote is:
“Start With the Customer and Work Backward.”  [Source: Goodreads]
Lessons to learn from Amazon’s meteoric success
Here are some of the secrets behind the unprecedented success of Amazon that the entrepreneurs must be aware of.   
Pay attention to customer service

Bezos’ strong background in customer service at FITEL, where he was the director, customer service was instrumental in the success of Amazon.

You won’t believe but it’s true that even as a CEO, he still handles emails directly from customers.

If the issue is quite big, he forwards it to the concerned team with a “question mark” on it.  It’s clearly a red flag and it means that the concerned team has to fix it immediately.

Be an entrepreneur and enjoy the freedom
According to Bezos, if you want a fulfilled life and more freedom, be an entrepreneur. So, even if you are 50, it’s not too late. You’re twice as likely to become successful than a 25 year old. [Source: MSN]
Focus on basics
In an interview with Lyons of Slate magazine, Jeff Bezos said that focus on basics, i.e. low prices, selection of products, reliability, fast delivery and convenience and your eCommerce business will thrive even in the bad economy. If you consistently do it, you will reap its rewards for many years to come. [Source: Slate]
Reverse engineer your business
Bezos always believed in “customer first”. He is often quoted as saying “Start with the customer and work backward.”
During his interview with Slate magazine, he said that development of Amazon Kindle as a dedicated reading device was a big step in that direction.
Form smaller teams
Bezos believes in smaller teams for success in the business world.
The term “two-pizza team” was coined by him and by it he meant that the ideal team should comprise of the members, who can be fed no more than two pizzas. It enables better communication and agility.
Jeff Bezos | How He Became World’s Richest Person | Case Study | Dr Vivek Bindra (In Hindi)

5 Tips for leadership by Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos, the Internet billionaire is known for his unique approach and strategies.
You can learn the following things from his unprecedented success.
  1. Don’t follow the crowd.
  2. Adopt a data driven business model and cut the emotional component.
  3. Work hard to offer the most competitive prices.
  4. Don’t let failure push you back.
  5. Always think for the long term.
Final words
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is not just an accidental entrepreneur, he is an inspiration for millions of entrepreneurs around the world.
You can learn from him how you can fuse a futuristic approach with the basics of a customer-centered business to ensure success in this uncertain world.  
Even if you forget about his wealth for a minute, he is still one of the most successful persons, who have changed the world.

SEO Experts

A General Approach to Designing Your Web with Denis Pinsky of Savvy Herb

There is a clear difference between launching and growing a company or website.

Luckily, many developers know the story behind successful ones well.

Of course, using unified approaches will help you to turn site visitors into clients.

From optimizing the marketing channel through to enhanced conversion, the result should be real e-commerce.

Here is how Denis Pinsky of Webfia will bring in the seasoned experience of online marketing specialists and the current advertising skills to manage it for you.

Types of Design Approaches

Nowadays not all businesses are running well. Some fail by far to reach the financial goals while others experience double revenues.

Well, operating a web development and design consulting firm means targeting to give the best services.

For Denis, everything started 15 years ago. He crafted applications and websites for organizations until when he took his skills to his own business.

Forbe’s Denis Pinsky further explains the development approaches used today as:

Static design

With this design, the web applies some fixed page size. There is no adjustment regardless of your browser’s measurement. The various types of devices used by clients will display the sites differently.

Desktops may need level scroll bars, while the smartphones or iPhones require horizontal scrolling. In this way, the content gets read easily or viewed when the page is zoomed in nonstop. Usually, the earlier designs had this layout used but thanks to technology today.

Liquid design

The tactic is different to the fixed page plan in that the page gets filled. Such happens despite your browser’s size. As the name suggests, the outline shows the fluid look on the web.

The design applies proportions or additional measuring units like ems. You will, however, face some challenges with too small or big browser size when using the fluid model.

Responsive design

The responsive approach of web designing comes from the knowledge of both similar units and an adaptive plan. With this, you can overcome the disadvantages of the liquid model. That said, your page will loosen updependent on the size of the browser.

The web gets used to the dimensions without any space allowances. The texts are neither contracted further than what the reader regards as comfortable. Such design of sites has a mobile-first style and the designers in the futurelook for meansofexpanding the plan.

The quality of downloaded images and videos vary with responsive web designs. But your internet speed will as well matter.

Adaptive design

Such web design approach applies the CSS media demands. The queries help to discover your browser’s size and can change the layout of the page accordingly. Similar to the fixed design, this layout uses static measurement units.

With this, your site will automatically adapt to both mobiles and desktops. The users will end up having a superior viewing experience. One fault faced by designers is the need to use redirects to cross-link.

The Secret of Success Behind Webfia

Denis believes that despite the personality of the end user, every designer must choose a perfect and economical layout to a business. The site as well needs to remain user-friendly and straight forward.

The goal of Webfia team is to provide a holistic web development approach to the clients. The role is that which tell apart the services and the reason for devotion to creating, designing, advertising, and maintaining the customer’s sites.

Pinsky’s Advice To People Looking to Begin a Similar Business

Studying the trends in the marketplace will make your practice in web development exciting. Well, the variety of skills makes the process of creating a site simple. When you realize the thing that motivates you, then you have higher competitive advantages.

You need an integrated approach and know that after building and designing a great site, you ought to concentrate on drawing customers. Through a targeted SEO and social media marketing, you can achieve it.

Recommendations

Many companies and individuals agree that Denis and the team offer the best site solutions.

Among the things said by satisfied clients include from:

  1. Andrew Roenko of Internet Marketing Manager at Ekran System who confirmed Denis’ team as rare to find. The mix of the technical, creative and scrappy sides made him all their business needed. With limited resources, you are sure of significant growth in e-commerce.
  2. Aleksey Andrusenko, the Head of SEO Department at LivePage described Denis team as self- driven and reliable. The expert in technical marketing and fast discovery of solutions to problems lead to clients, attaining the goals. The team ensures everything gets done giving an enjoyable and valuable experience.
  3. Prerna Sinha, an Associate Director of Talent Development at Uncommon Schools also confirmed the liking of being part of Denis team. As an organized and strategic leader, the skills in you get growing. You will undoubtedly enjoy working here and face new and useful career challenges.
  4. Adrienne Vogt, the Social media producer at CNN, says partnering with Denis means reliability and trustworthiness. The skills and social media power and tools in him gets harnessed and worth to capitalize on a project with him. Even with emergencies, he maintains composure and ensures the right persons resolve every issue quickly.
  5. Tom Post, an Editorial Advisor at Forbes Finland and the Baltics has a lot to say about Denis. But he describes Pinsky as a driven and useful digital wizard to Forbes, with proof on what happened to the site’s traffic. Denis will pull your business out of possible serious jams and build strong.

The bottom line is, hit the nail on your niche in a market that is not saturated. That is the place you can experience the most significant impact on your new investment. Never startup when you do not have enough capital for undoubted success.

Digital Marketers

Shama Hyder, a Digital Marketing Expert, Keynote Speaker, and TV & Media Personality

Now, I want to be a little bit in your face and ask a direct question, “If God forbid, you face 18 job rejections in the very early stage of your career, how would you react and behave?”

You will probably go nuts and start behaving in a crazy manner.

Many will lose all hope and develop suicidal tendencies.

This is not the case however with the most successful and revered entrepreneurs in the world and that’s probably the reason they are at the top.

Believe it or not, it sounds as if they are made of a different metal altogether.

Here we are talking about Shama Hyder, a web and TV personality, an award-winning CEO and founder of The Marketing Zen Group. She is also an acclaimed keynote speaker.

Shama Hyder, International Keynote Speaker

The beginning of her entrepreneurial journey

One of the most successful young Indian American entrepreneurs, Shama Hyder was born on April 25, 1985 in Goa, India.

She is from an average middle class background, despite that she made in big in the US. It was largely because of her desire to do something big and an unwavering support she received from her parents.

She had strong faith in the potential of social media since the beginning. The quality education she received at University of Texas, in the US is also a major factor behind her early success.

Shama is an example of an inspiring immigrant success story. She built a tremendously successful business empire based on digital and social media consulting services. She launched her entrepreneurial journey from a humble initial investment.

It involved a lot of hard work as the multitalented girl from India became a best-selling author, a globally renowned public speaker and a prominent TV, media and Web personality.

Moving to the United States

Shama’s family migrated to United States in 1994 and found another home in Dallas Texas, when she was barely 9 years old.

She graduated from University of Texas at Austin in 2003. She did her Masters in Organizational Communication and Technology in 2008.

In the University of Texas, she met Professor Dawna Ballard. In an interview with KVR Webtech, she admitted that Dawna was an influence in her life as she was the first influential person outside, who believed in the young prodigy and encouraged her to do something big.

Her struggle story

In an interview with Moe Abdou for 33 Voices, Shama admitted that she was also on a look out for a job, when she finished her graduation in 2007 as most of the university graduates would do in the United States.

Social media was like a hot cake back in 2007, as Twitter had just taken off and Facebook was the reigning social media. Excited by the stats and the number of users of those big social media platforms, she started looking for a job in consulting companies, because she also had a background in social media but she couldn’t find even a single job.

In 2007, she appeared in about 18 interviews and she was rejected from all of them. It was a time when she saw the world slamming all the doors in her face, but she was not ready to give up on her passion in social media.

She needed something to crawl through to get out of this mess and eventually it dawned upon her that to keep her passion alive, she should start her own venture.

She strongly believed that there is future in social media and that was the tipping point that led to her entrepreneurial career in social media.

Shama TV – Market Like a Zen Master

Shama’s contribution to social media marketing

Shama Hyder is also an author and a well-known digital marketing expert. She started her entrepreneurial career in 2009, when she founded Zen Media, which is now a global marketing and media company with 27 employees.

As a CEO of Zen Media and a keynote speaker, she has got worldwide recognition and popularity. It’s largely because she has a unique approach towards digital and social marketing.

A leading influencer on LinkedIn

Recently in 2017, she was ranked as one of the top 10 influencers on LinkedIn.

She had started very young, when she was under 25. She was named as one of the top 25 entrepreneurs by BusinessWeek magazine back in 2009.

In 2015, the leading business magazine Forbes recognized her as the top 30 under 30 Movers and Shakers.

Forbes 30 under 30 Entrepreneur Shama Hyder CEO of Zen Media on Stories in Business Podcast.

Shama’s revolutionary approach towards digital marketing

Very few people can actually afford to achieve such super success in their early thirties.

In 2009, when Shama launched Zen Media as a digital marketing and social media marketing company, social media and digital marketing were rather mysterious territories.

Most of the business owners were confused about the changes taking place on digital landscape. Very few people actually understood how to implement it correctly.

Shama is a dynamic leader and a visionary entrepreneur. It was her vision and passionate approach for digital marketing that led Zen Media to grow at an astonishing rate of 400% annually since its inception in 2009.

With an organizational strength of 27+ and clients including nonprofits and Fortune 500 companies to small business owners from across the world, Zen Media is a truly global organization.  .

Recognitions from White House and the UN

Shama Hyder was honored by the State Department and she was selected as the only woman delegate to mentor technology business owners in Asia and Middle East region following the White House initiatives to spread awareness about tech businesses worldwide.

United Nations honored her as the top 100 young entrepreneurs of United States.

Books, magazines and TV

Shama’s first book The Zen of Social Media Marketing was published in 2010 and it became an international bestseller. The book has been reprinted many times in the following years.

In 2016, she published another book Momentum, andit was about branding in the digital age.

She is a featured author on the Forbes and Inc. magazines, where she is a columnist. She also runs a YouTube channel Shama TV that offers expert tips and advice on digital marketing strategies and new media technologies. It also throws light on the current business trends.

Mentor, investor, media and business personality

Shama hosts many television programs in Texas about digital marketing and social media marketing. She is a busy entrepreneurs and she keeps on attending several workshops both national and international, where she is invited as keynote speaker.

She offers tips on crucial business topics such as entrepreneurship, leadership, millennials, and technology etc.

She is regularly invited by fortune 500 companies such as Siemens, Bentley University, Cisco, HubSpot, and many others.

Shama is a media correspondent for Fox Business news channel. She is also a mentor and investor on Young Entrepreneur Council. Currently, she is a board member of Forbes Business Council.

Wealth and Net Worth

According to Forbes, in 2014, The Marketing Zen Group earned revenue of $2 million. Current figures about her net worth are not available, but her company has been assessed as a multimillion dollar enterprise.

Shama Hyder’s Top 10 Tips on Entrepreneurship

Speaking to the Source of Insight, the CEO of The Marketing Zen Group –a full service web marketing firm, Shama Hyder offered her top 10 tips for the entrepreneurs.

1. Shed your fears, plan, research, take help from others and launch your venture.
2. Start as young as possible.
3. Leverage tech in a big way.
4. Think global, even if you are acting local.
5. Young or old, your age is an asset, young means energy and a promising future and old means a lot of experience.
6. Hire intelligent people, use your instinct while hiring, resume may lie about the potential of a person.
7. Always have a business lawyer by your side.
8. Listen and respond to your marketplace.
9. Invest in services, workforce and marketing.
10. Use creativity instead of money, especially when you are a startup.

Free resources for entrepreneurs

Go through the following podcasts:

A. Lessons on Business & Life from ‘Zen Master of Marketing,’ by ShamaHyder about digital entrepreneur.

B. ShamaHyder, Zen Master

Final words

Beyond her venture “the Marketing Zen Group”, Shama is respected for her no nonsense advice for the digital age entrepreneurs.

She is remarkably brilliant and that’s something that differentiates her from the rest.

She is regularly invited for the keynotes and conferences by some of the most prestigious organizations and MNCs.

Her books and keynotes are a treasure house of marketing advice that is both contextual and practical.

Her success proves that vision is always above experience.

Digital Marketers

Scott Stratten: the Keynote Speaker blogger and writer with a difference

In our journey towards the most influential people online, I bring you the mirthful Scott Stratten.

He is different in the way he presents he’s facts across. As he puts it, he let people unlearn the old and bad ways on how to conduct their brand on the Social Medias.

Ordinarily you would dismiss him as just another comedian. Not until you get to know that he once run a successful viral video agency in the world (UnAgency), and he has also written best sellers! Welcome.

Scott Stratten: Education and Interest

Scott went to Sheridan College where he studied Human Resource between 1994 and 1998.

He came back later to the College, as a professor, teaching Human Resource and Employment Law. (2002-2010).

Before that, just after college, he worked as a Human Resource Consultant at Goodwill Industries of Toronto a position he took for two years then moved to Polyair as a National Sales Training Manager.

He took about a year and eight months before moving on to be a tutor at Sheridan College. He spends almost a decade teaching, until he made up his mind and started his company UnMarketing Inc.

He is currently the President of UnMarketing.

Scott Stratten Keynote Speaker Trailer

Rewards & Attainments

Scott has his videos watched sixty million times.

He has also appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine among many other top online publications.

He was named Top Ten American Marketing Gurus by Business Review USA.

His UnPodcast was signed up by CBS network as their major business podcast to start their new digital network.

Another accomplishment for Scott is that he has co-authored best-selling business books with Alison Stratten, the latest in line being UnSelling: The New Customer Experience .

The book was named Sales book of the year.

Scott was also named Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers in 2013.

Scott the Keynote Speaker

As a speaker, Scott has come in handy in assisting his audience cope with this age of disturbance.

Though a recent inductee into the stardom of the keynote speaker, Scott is a bestselling author of five books and has had taste of marketing and training.

He speaks in events for companies which range from 3M, Wal-Mart, Microsoft, Cirque Du Soleil and Deloitte amongst many others.

Scott is one guy who keynotes an event passionately, knowledgably, and as always, full of drama. He bridges the gap between virtual and reality.

He is known to have his audience laughing, but also, reasoning, and doing. He currently does nothing, except conference keynote.

A senior Director of Hardrock International once said that Scott illuminated and amused a bored group on the changes the social media landscape has brought with thoughtful and mirthful examples of branding initiatives.

This was after his keynote speech for the company.

Scott Stratten the Blogger

Apart from being a keynote speaker, sometimes Scott blogs, and when he does, he looks critically at the marketing mistakes made by companies.

For example, from one of his blogs on The National Speakers Bureau, he plainly pointed out the suspicious app review by a Canadian company.

It came out clearly that the employees of the firm actually reviewed the app themselves.

From his views, he saw no reason why the company does not want negative reviews, while it was clear that they could use them to make their product better.

This was a big mistake done by many companies who only focus on 5 star reviews, thinking that they would result into many sales, instead of getting the 1 or 2 stars that would help make their product better.

He clearly speaks against self made review. As a blogger, Scott doesn’t mince his words. He calls a spade a spade.

Full UnMarketing Keynote

What Social Media/ Online marketing skills can we get from Scott Stratten?

  1. Never ever automate your brand page on social media, keep your followers/fans engaged. He calls such automation, is like taking a mannequin for marketing gig.
  2. A small change on a video can determine whether it would go viral or not. He had one of his watched over 13,000 million times on Facebook.
  3. Timing is very essential when tweeting. Avoid automated tweets for they can hit clients in bad times like disasters etc.
  4. Checking out your facts before shelling them out is a must.
  5. People talk about unnecessary thing on Twitter; however, it can be an excellent platform to vent out your brand if you do it well.
  6. Avoid exaggeration of size and numbers on Social Media; you might end up losing instead.
  7. Avoid under pricing just to look appealing, when indeed you may end up making a big loss.
  8. Avoid words like “sign in for a free newsletter” on your website.. They are enticing at all. Instead you can use phrases like: “Sign-up for product updates and exclusive announcements” or “Sign-up for weekly tips on how to save your business money.”
  9. Respect your readers. Don’t email them unless you have something important to tell them. Avoid automated e-mails. Be as natural as possible.
  10. When someone Tweets about your brand and mentions you, ensure that you become part of the conversation. Don’t ignore them.
  11. Stop trying to piggyback off holidays and celebrations by making it about you.
  12. When giving a review, stick to the facts, versus smearing the company.
  13. No need of being on Google+ if you are already on the other Social Medias. Scott finds it an effort in futility, according to him; you’ll still be circling the same people you have on the other platforms.
  14. The best time not to send an email is when everyone tells you. You need to work on your brand first. You will also need to test the same email over different time.
  15. Keep note that nobody joins the Social Media to be sold to. Instead, they buy from people they know and trust. Be nice and help people, then, Social media will be an awesome place for branding.
  16. Always get to know the ROI of any action or activity in your company. Whether it’s meeting, buying furniture for the office etc.

Want to be a Keynote Speaker like Scott? Here are a few tips

  1. He emphasizes the importance of being an expert not a speaker. People are interested in someone who really knows their stuff.
  2. Make sure that you speak, don’t read the slides.
  3. Ensure that you deliver your content effectively, aim to be great on the stage.
  4. Make your audience have something new from you every time you speak. Don’t talk too much about yourself.
  5. Switch off your phone before speaking, and, get used to the idea that someone else phone will go off during the speaking session.
  6. The session is not about you, but, about your audience.
  7. Take note that you know your stuff so well that you don’t need to use any slide during Q&A.
  8. Don’t make apologies to the audience about something that you needed to have but you don’t. Just carry on.
  9. Be passionate with your topic.
  10. Be early and stay late. Get to know your audience well.
  11. Record everything you say, have it on your blog, you will learn more when you watch your own videos.
  12. Tell your audience great stories mixed with humor.

SEO Experts

Michael Peggs –The Standout Entrepreneur’s Profile

The world is ever full of stories about tired CEO’s, miserable stars and billionaires.

Without doubts, the question about why are prosperous people so unhappy arises.

Of course, the society currently exalts the famous and rich then honors small things over important ones.

For you to live a meaningful and fulfilling life, you need to place first your sense of purpose.

That is true to entrepreneurs like Michael Peggs who earns from serving others with his businesses.

Here are some of the things that make him enjoy the financial success besides building passion.

Michael, the entrepreneur

As a believer in the well-doings of his business, Peggs helps e-commerce sellers and publishers. The SEO specialist and founder of Marccx Media work with the customers to draw and engage clients.

With an aim to attract traffic, the contents like articles and blog posts get ranked on search engines.

What is more, the conversion rates increase from your site. Like recently, the team with another advertising agency partnered to offer Facebook marketing services to some clients.

He confessed the partnership and tools, organizations, and processes cooperation to be remarkable.

Alongside being an entrepreneur, Michael Peggs is a contributing writer. For some time, he has made several publications to many online publications and blogs.

Some include the Fast Company, Huffington Post, Business Insider, Marketingprofs and The Daily Muse.

 

 

The Success Story behind Starting a Personal Business

Michael considers the strength of his business lies on the passion and time of practice at Google. Over the years, the interest in search engine optimization and digital marketing grew.

Yes, the information gathered from people, outside and within Google, influenced the birth of marccx.

The few answers received made him figure out and begin Marccx Media for clear insights. The search experts understand the factors behind Google’s algorithm.

The complete knowledge continues to prove helpful even to the customers.

Like any other service businesses, it was hard to source startup capitals. The old financiers as the investors and banks never help sometimes.

But Peggs used the saved money from the 9-to-5 job and through appeals up to when Marccx Media became self-sustaining.

An Overview of Marccx Media

Many industries and businesses have online customers, so giving solutions is necessary. Marccx Media helps brands become visible thus increased site visits and lead qualification.

The SEO Experts will rank your content and meta-data on the relevant search sites.

In this way, you become accessible to the target consumers of your products or services.

The entrepreneur’s team prides in interacting with partners and meeting the customer’s goals.

The exposure drives the devotion to give you real results in website analytics, marketing campaigns, and sales performance.

For some time the skills get boosted and renewed to push for the hard work.

Company and Staff

The company has a team of three brilliant individuals who work with little supervision.

Michael, believe the employees need to own the jobs for a sense of responsibility for the results.

The created culture empowers all to become risk takers and promote innovations. Well, failures come at Marccx Media, but the team figures valuable solutions.

The New Initiatives Worked On By Marccx Media

With search as the core of the business; both paid and organic the team has current enterprises. There are inroads to social media marketing besides the expanding content marketing sector.

Video planning, creation, and promotion are known to play a significant role in increasing and engaging more online audiences.

Marccx Media is preparing to shift the ways of content consumption. The team believes in continued innovations and encounters in different ways.

The company as well in the recent times launched a website like the EZsitebuilders.com.

Also, the O&O websites were meant to try innovative digital marketing strategies yet to get introduced to the clients.

Recommendations by Famous People

Outside of implausible work codes and specific purpose in Michael, the specialist has high emotional intelligence.

If you have self-understanding, working with the customers and the team becomes smooth and enhanced.

The people business has seen his relations with others and given positive recommendations.

  1. Gerald Ming describes Michael as a big marketer whom he has interacted with for long. The great listening skills match his ability to create high notch content and SEO strategies.
  2. Juliet Hodder says Peggs has proven skills to crack brands fast. Whether personal or for a company, the results will be tremendous and dramatic into real dreams. She adds that at no time will the clients regret involving Michael for a change in the business.
  3. Daniel Barrett, the Network General Manager Hawaiian Islands, also confirms the energy in Peggs. The business abilities give a unique insight in keeping a competitive spirit with others. You will always find pleasure when working with a professional like him in your team.
  4. Albert Ko of Helping Technology Companies Succeed admits Michael is a real entrepreneur. From the previous working place, Google, he showed excellent sales ability. Many big publishers have as well reached the targets all thanks to having Peggs in the team.
  5. Shawn Ranjbaran. The Director of Strategic Partnerships calls Michael a mentor. The career growth got enhanced through the excellent product knowledge. The mastery in the domain top ranks him as the perfect crafting partner, one worth working within your project.

Michael’s Advices

For anyone looking to begin a business in Peggs’ industry, there are simple tips for you.

He says you need to specialize in a particular thing.

Well, knowing your expertise and sharing the visions with plentiful people will help you develop in power.

Like it is in Marccx Media employ, partner, and believes in experts.

In conclusion, all businesses face challenges, so be reminded to overcome. Peggs found it hard to secure first loyal client, but the trick of being everywhere helped.

You can think of offering free services like seminars on your field like digital marketing.

You will be creating brand awareness and also launching your authority, and that is how Marccx Media became a dependable company.

Digital Marketers

Justin Cutroni: Analytics Evangelist at Google

Web analytics has been a trend for some years now.

It’s where companies use data to make their decisions.

In this field, there is one leader that stands out from the rest.

Justin Cutroni

He is known to have many interests which are: Digital Analytics, Google Analytics, Website Testing Online Business Optimization, Digital Marketing, Consulting, Speaking Training and Writing.

His achievements are just amazing.

Below is his story as to how one can become a guru in what they are passionate about.

Justin’s Education and Interest:

According to his Linkedin Profile, Justin got his higher education from Belmont High School, and then joined Worcester Polytechnic Institute, between 1992 and 1996.

He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The research for his Thesis was conducted at NASA Glen Research Center, Cleveland OH.

The project was honored in its achievement in concept, presentation and its final execution. It was his first project, a big success.

His first success was an opening for more and better things.

He is mostly referred to as an analytics evangelist. He is the right person to read his articles and follow him on the social media, if you need to get the latest trends in Google analytics. He is a guru in the field.

If you are in online business, you need to understand what visitors do when they either land on your site or app.

How does the app or site contribute to your failure?

Such is the field that Justin is involved in. He has written hands on guide on how to get most from the Google analytic tool.

You don’t have to be an expert in the field. His books can also be used by a beginner and an expert alike.

Justin’s passion being analytics, he most of the times makes interactions with high level managerial teams, to ensure that web data is strategically used.

Apart from this, he collaborates with technical teams in development of plans for implementation as far as actionable data and business insight is concerned.

He is one person who understands all that you need for your online business to boom, from digital marketing to what changes you need to have on your landing page to make a kill.

Awards & Accomplishments

He got his first nomination as the Innovator of the year in 2011 (Web Analytics Association) and, he was nominated twice (2012 and 2013) as the Most Influential Industry Contributor.

Justin is also a very active member in web analytics community passionate about sharing what he knows, and the advancement of the analytical community.  He runs a trendy blog, analytical talk, and he is a common figure in related forums and trade shows.  When he has a new post, online companies would treat it with the deserved respect, he always comes up with something new.

Justin is also an author of several books online. He has co-authored two books with O’Relly: Google Analytics and Performance Marketing with Google analytics, both available on Amazon.

The book has won the hearts of many online business owners who includes Chris Miller, of TheSocialNetworker who calls it a masterpiece.

He applied the analytical techniques from the book and according to him, the results where, improved traffic and conversion for his blog.

He also has many videos on YouTube mainly for teaching on analytics.

Justin Cutroni – Conversions@Google

Justin Cutroni: Career and experience

Currently, Justin works at Google as an analytics evangelist, a position that he took six years ago.

Previously, he worked at Cardinal Path as the Director of Digital Intelligence for almost two years where his chief mandate was assisting companies in the implementation of web analytics so as to come up with measurement strategies.

He would talk to business owners and explain to them in simple language, the importance of web analytics.

He came in handy in selecting the right measurement tools for businesses, how to set them up, and their maintenance.

Justin also ensured that the business owners could understand the data through analysis of their sites performance after analyzing data to understand the performance of their online business.

 He would finally have their landing page and other relevant pages tested for better performance.

His assistance does not only go to the website owners, he also helps in apps and on mobile based platforms.

The main intention he has is to ensure that the measured initiatives targets the online business owners in getting to understand of analytics in impacting their businesses.

Justin Cutroni has also worked for EpiKOne a web analytics company as The Director of Web Analytics, a position he took for four years and ten months.

As an Analytical evangelist at Google, Justin has held many workshops and seminars to teach online companies about Google Analytics & Website Optimizer and how to use these tools for business success.

The events allowed by Google, assist companies in understanding data analysis and web testing using Google tools to their advantage.

Another work experience earned by Justin Cutroni is in between 2001 and 2005 when he was consulting for Astute Computing, LLC.

His consultation service with the company was based on the internet, though he also provided programming services, especially in coming up with online based apps.

He also had a consulting role at Accenture a global leader in strategy for solutions and services which includes consulting in operations, digital technology and operation.

His other clients include: Sony Music, Universal Music, Wells Fargo, National Hockey League and Homeaway. 

Analytical Blogger

Justin has his personal blog Analytics Talk  as the Analytics Evangelist at Google; he is the authority in the provision of any information on Analytics.

Analytical Talk is the hub of the latest Google updates and what they mean for your business.

Some of the latest topics on Analytical Talk include: universal analytics, cohort analysis and the Analytics tag manager and this recent post (which includes a code snippet) outlines a new way to track Keyword ranking using Google Analytics.

Justin Cutroni Worth

The Google analytical seminars and talks that Justin has been holding is just a part of his job at the company.

He must be earning a considerable amount from the sales of the books he co-authored with others and also from his regular consultations he carries out for online firms.

Justin Cutroni the influencer

Justin was named the top 25 influencers on Relevance.

The reasons behind it being that he has worked with some of the big brands and made them embrace analytics, especially helping them to grasp how they can use online data and digital analytics to build their online businesses.

Being a member of digital analytics community has given him an upper hand; add that to his advocacy then he becomes the voice to reckon with.

Lessons you can learn for your online business, a preview of Justin Cutroni’s book: Performance Marketing Google Analytics

I’m sharing with you a few facts from his book on why you should embrace Google Analytics for your business.

  1. Justin and his co-authors explain why you should understand the power of users over your online business. Ones you get the point, you will need to work on maintaining the users on your site and turn them into buyers.
  2. They emphasize the power of the almighty algorithm (Google) and how it has power over your business.
  3. You should keep in mind that there is no single product on the web that does not have comparison. Every product is compared with the other(s) and the best product gets more sales.
  4. No matter what you do to your site, you need to have it in mind that web surfers always listen to each other first before the marketers.
  5. Online competition can spring up anytime without notice. Always be ready for competition.
  6. Always remember to put your clients first in any situation.
  7. Treat data as a strategic asset- Data is what will move you from where you are and where you desire to go.
  8. Know your desired outcome- How much do you really want? After getting the figure, go ahead and achieve your goal.
  9. Maintain simplicity don’t complicate your site- Make it easy for your clients to get around it.
  10. Use the right tool for the right job- Know which tools you need to improve your site and make use of them.
  11. Expect and accept accountability- You should be accountable for the outcome of your input don’t blame others.

Fun Facts about Justin Cutroni

Generally, Justin is a family man, who loves adventure, camping, rock-climbing and other outdoor adventures. He also loves to cook.

Authors

Jeff Kinney, a Super Successful Creative Writer in the Children’s Genre

Jeff Kinney is one of the most popular authors in the world.

He is a good cartoonist and has produced a vast number of children’s books.

He shot to fame through the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series.

Net worth

Jeff Kinney is one of the richest authors in the world and his net worth is $70 million. (Source)

Biography

Born on February 19, 1971, in Fort Washington, Maryland, Jeff Kinney was also raised in that town.

Currently, he lives in Plainville, Massachusetts. He has three siblings – two older and one is younger. He is married to Julie Kinney and has two boys.

He has written a number of novels and produced movies. He had a creative bent of mind from the beginning. He sketched his first drawing that was one of a turtle, when he was barely three years old.

When he was in college, he came up with the idea of a comic strip. Soon, the idea came to fruition, when his campus newspaper agreed to feature the strip. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, in the early 1990s.

When he couldn’t syndicate his cartoon strip, he switched to writing books as a career. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series was launched in January 1998. He was working on it since 1988. The Wimpy Kid cartoons were originally published on funbrain.com.

When Internet became popular, the web version of his book series was launched in the year 2004. He kept on working on his book series for 8 years consistently, before he decided to approach a publisher.

Jeff Kinney’s Cartoon Class – How to draw Greg Heffley

In 2006, he signed up a contract with publisher Harry N Abrams Inc. and his dream of turning the Diary of a Wimpy Kid into print series saw the light of the day.

The book soon became a bestseller and its website received around 20 million views. By, April 2007, a complete set of around 14 books of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid got published. He also launched a do-it-yourself book for the series along with the movie diary. Later, his big recognition came when Time Magazine named Jeff Kinney as one of the world’s most influential people, in April 2009.

At present, Jeff Kinney is engaged in writing and designing online games. He also launched a kids- friendly website Poptropica. This website features the Diary of a Wimpy Kid characters and events.

As of 2018, the kid book series has sold around 200 million copies in print with Kinney as an executive producer.

The book series was also repurposed into feature films.

He is also a contributor in Guys Read, a book series written by many authors. In May 2015, Kinney and his wife Julie launched local bookstore in Plainville, Massachusetts and it was christened as An Unlikely Story.

Awards and recognitions

Jeff Kinney has been recognized by Time magazine and Nickelodeon for his extra ordinary work.

The World’s Most Influential People (April, 2009) – Time
His book series won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favorite Book 2016 –   Nickelodeon

Final words

Jeff Kinney is one of the most popular writers in children’s genre. As far as quality and popularity is concerned, his work is no less than that of JK Rowling, the British author.

That’s the reason four of his books are chosen so far by 20th Century Fox to make movies on them. He is an avid book lover and currently he is running a bookstore as well.

Digital Marketers

John Rampton: From disability to the second most influential individual online

In the journey towards success in your entrepreneurship, I have chosen John Rampton’s story to motivate you and give you hope when faced with barriers against success.

John is a man who conquered disability by using it to his advantage and not only became the second most influential individual globally but, went ahead to make a seven figure income purely online!

He was able to start and sell several online businesses through his self taught online marketing tactics.

He has also been a top PPC Expert for three years running. John has helped many people through his articles in Forbes and entrepreneur.

His numerous articles on Forbes assist entrepreneurs, online marketers and startups. They range from advice on social media, time management and basically how to manage your business.

For example on Facebook he advices entrepreneurs on the 25 vital books that they should read.

John has always been sharing his entrepreneurship journey on blogs and social media and has clearly revealed how one can take the path to success.

They include great books like: As A Man Thinketh by James Allen, Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School by Richard Branson and The Fire Starter Sessions by Danielle LaPorte.

Early Life

John Rampton was raised up in Salt Lake City, according to his site, johnrampton.com, his entrepreneurship has lasted all his life.

A real hustle since his early years at college, John was involved in an accident at a construction site (a job he used to pay for his college fees) that immobilized him.

He was to remain bed confinement for a year. After several surgeries, the doctors declared that he would never walk again.

John was left with no any alternative but to try and figure out how he can still make money while on his bed. He chose to pursue online marketing.

Working up to 20 hours daily, he learned all he needed to sell products on the internet. He used the same motivation to conquer his disability.

He courageously enrolled for an experiment where stem cells were used in his leg to enable him walk again.

He was back to his feet after tough physical training. His determination being clearly portrayed here.

He came up with two victories, getting back to his feet (literally) and being able to figure out how to make money online.

He clearly talks about his ability to fight his inability as the cornerstone of his success.

John Ramptom is truly an inspiring person. He clearly reveals to you that you can indeed take advantage of your failure and make it any direction you are passionate about.

He uses most of his time in encouraging people and showing them that things can work their way if they fight and pursue them passionately, despite the barriers that they may have.

Awards & Accomplishments

Apart from being the second most influential person on the internet, John was also awarded top PPC Affiliate Marketer for 2012.

He has co-authored a book with Murray Newlands: Performance Marketing for Professionals and another top selling book with Joel Comm: Self-Employed: 50 signs that you Might Be an Entrepreneur

Let’s look at how John has pursued all his passions and helped thousands, either as an online marketer, a serial entrepreneur or a speaker.

John Rampton as an entrepreneur

His entrepreneur spirit is seen in his starting an online invoicing company Due.com where he is the Founder and CEO. He also spends time advising businesses on marketing and management.

This spirit is copied by thousands across the globe.

Those willing to get started or want to understand how they can run their businesses well, need to read his articles on top notch blogs including: Forbes, entrepreneur.com among others.

He is known to launch products that help people solve their problems. He turns his critics into buyers. A good example is the Snore Coach, a product that aims to making users stop snoring in a clever way.

John has always been sharing his entrepreneurship journey on blogs and social media and has clearly revealed how one can take the path of success.

Growing After $1B | Kenneth Lin (Credit Karma) & John Rampton (Entrepreneur) @ Startup Grind Global

His Worth

John’s total worthies in millions, though not revealed on Forbes, he has earned seven figures in his product and company sells, books and speaking engagement not to forget mentioning that he advices several large companies.

The Talented Speaker

John is a highly motivating speaker that has been handy to people and companies helping them to change the way they do business and their outlook of life.

He has many videos on YouTube that advices online business owners and startups on how to get real traction online, the ten golden rules of affiliate marketing, advanced content promotion (How the big boys do it), and various interviews including the one he speaks about due.com

As a speaker, he has coached hundreds of entrepreneurs on how to turn their ideas into multibillion businesses.

Many have learned from his forum on how they can either manage their businesses; market them, and ideas on saving time and management.

There are also many videos on YouTube where he talks about his entrepreneur especially where he talks about his tough journey towards stardom.

He speaks passionately about his dream of having all global online businesses growing through his help.

As a speaker, John is not only inspiring but, he has assisted many of his audience in starting, managing, marketing and making sales.

John Rampton as one of the Top Global Influencers

As I had mentioned above, John has been named no. 2 out of 50 possible influential people across the globe.

He is also a very influential PPC (Pay Per Click) experts. A position he has held for the last three years.

His amazing rags to riches story, his passion about online marketing, and his many articles and speeches across the internet is what has propelled him to where he is now.

John Rampton the Passionate Business Marketer

In his bios on various sites and on social media, John emphasizes his passion for marketing businesses.

He clearly states that one needs to be highly passionate about what they are engaged in. He advises individuals to be ready to put in many hours to succeed.

Most of his articles on Forbes, Entrepreneurship.com and other sites give tips on how to launch new products, market them and maintain the clients.

John Rampton on delegating

According to Stephan Spencer an SEO, who worked with John on his online invoicing company site: Due.com, he is good at content marketing, however his grasp of the technical part of SEO was wanting.

After working with many SEOs and failing to get the traffic of his site shoot, John came to Stephan looking for her services.

The success was 554% improvement in traffic for Due.com! Why do you need to know this? Well, John is a believer in delegation and trusting his staff. He realized that to make it as an entrepreneur, you will need to build around you.

However, he says that it takes a couple of years to get the right team. It’s one of the great ways to boosting production.

John Rampton’s advice to those willing to make millions

John sees no limit to one being a millionaire currently. According to him, age is just a number in this game. He emphasizes the importance of learning from your failures.

The following are some of his advices;

Make use of YouTube Channel to Popularize Your Brand

John points out the idea that there are a few YouTube millionaires and teaches that one should take advantage of the channel and make their brand popular.

Follow your Passion

He advices those who want to be millionaires to claim their mentors by through their passion and finding a way to offer people what they need for less pricing.

Jump on Trending Bandwagon

According to him, there is absolutely no any wrong doing when one joins a trend, all they need to do after that is to figure out branching from it and becoming innovative.

Don’t be afraid of new things

He dares those who are willing to make it financially to embrace new things and keep off fear.

Everyone has the same time

If others can make it, so are you. The time given for all of us is the same. How do you make use of time?

Find your niche

One should be able to choose a niche they are passionate about and get started.

As a way of giving back to the society, John Rampton founded Palo Alto, a California-based  a hosting company which specializes I assisting businesses by hosting them for free, for life.

John has been recommended by influential individuals including: Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates just to mention a few.

Digital Marketers

Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing’s Best-Known Evangelist

There are times, when you find yourself in murky waters, especially if you are an entrepreneur.

Joe Pulizzi, the self-styled content marketing evangelist also found himself in deep trouble just three years after he launched his own content marketing business.

He has narrated this incident in his article A Content Marketing Love Letter. It was the year 2010 that Pulizzi hit the lowest phase in his life. He had started his content marketing business barely 2.5 years earlier in 2007.

He was making money, but he was losing more money in the process. One day, he lost his major client. It was quite a grief as Joe had personally worked very hard and provided valuable content and qualified leads to them, but, the client stopped hiring his services.

In a daze of shock and grief, he called up the client and received the final word about the divorce. Running a business in the incubation period is not easy; especially when the fund flow is not good.

The incident frustrated him and it took a lot of time for him to recover. Failure can slowly overtake you and make you numb.

When he looks back at that incident today, it seems silly. He was down but not out and literally it was not the end of the world. But when you are “into the scene”, it appears as if it’s the end. He started thinking about going back to his full-time job.

After a few days, he was back on track and realized that one should not make any decisions during an emotional outburst.

But, when one of the doors closes another better one opens for you. He soon received an email from one of his subscribers asking him to act as a content marketing consultant.

This was the beginning of his career as content marketing consultant and never looked back after this episode.

His client actually made him a true content marketing evangelist and leader in the industry by asking him to offer training to their staffers —Asking questions like why there is not a single content marketing conference or event—The question which led to the birth of Content Marketing World, the biggest content marketing conference in the world.

The client also expressed their desire of buying content marketing research material and tips on content creation and distribution.

The bulb of “Content marketing Institute” switched “on” his mind.

On his cocktail napkin, he scribbled a few words and expressed his resolution to start a leading online portal on content marketing, a magazine and the largest content marketing event across the globe.

Only six months following this incident, in May 2010, Content Marketing Institute came into existence. The concept soon became a success. The success was incredible.

Content marketing is a buzzword today and it is known as one of the most effective ways to engage your audiences and promote your business online. Content marketing is also recognized as one of the most assured ways to rank higher on Google and other search engines.

Content Marketing Strategy | Joe Pulizzi

The birth of an evangelist who introduced content marketing
Before 2008, hardly anyone knew about content marketing. Joe Pulizzi may not be the person who coined this term, but he is the one who first started using the term content marketing publicly and popularized it way back in 2001.

Joe Pulizzi prefers to call himself a content marketing evangelist. He is also a renowned author, speaker, entrepreneur, and podcaster.

Content Marketing Institute (CMI)
Joe Pulizzi is the founder of Content Marketing Institute (CMI), which is a leading resource for content marketing. It is his dream venture and it functions as an education and training organization on the subject. CMI has been acquired by UBM, a prominent events and media company based in UK, in 2016.

Content Marketing World, the biggest content marketing event 

CMI conducts Content Marketing World, which is considered the biggest content marketing event across the globe. It attracts thousands of visitors including entrepreneurs, content marketers, digital marketers and media barons.

Books  and Awards

Joe Pulizzi won the John Caldwell Lifetime Achievement Award for the year 2014. The award was given by the Content Council.

Joe Pulizzi has authored numerous books that include Epic Content Marketing, which became an international bestseller. It has also been named as the Five Must Read Business Books of 2013 by Fortune Magazine.

Apart from the unprecedented success of his book Epic Content Marketing, he wrote four more books viz. Get Content Get Customers, Managing Content Marketing, Content Inc., and Killing Marketing. Killing Marketing is his latest book and it was first published in 2017. Content Inc. has also been an international bestseller since 2015.

Personal branding and Pulizzi’s obsession with orange color

Pulizzi loves orange color and he is always seen wearing orange shirts and tees. He is so obsessed with orange color that the theme of the Content Marketing Institute’s website, its logo and also the banners of Content Marketing World is orange.

His entrepreneurial achievements

Pulizzi has founded many startups that include Content Marketing Institute, which is one of the most prominent educational and training resources for businesses and individuals interested in content marketing. It is also recognized as one of the fastest growing business media companies by Inc. magazine in the year 2015. In Cleveland, Ohio, CMI hosts world’s largest content marketing event marketed as Content Marketing World.

Consulting services

Joe Pulizzi started using the word content marketing when nobody even knew about it. Today, it is the fastest growing digital marketing industry.  Many big brands such as HP, LinkedIn, AT&T, Gates Foundation and Petco etc. avail CMI’s consulting services for their projects. CMI is currently being run by UBM, a London based media company.

Public speaking

Joe Pulizzi is considered an authority in content marketing and that’s the reason he is a highly respected person as a keynote speaker. He has delivered his speeches about content marketing in more than 400 locations worldwide.

He has spoken at major global events and leadership summits. He is also invited to speak about content and digital marketing at the events conducted by leading brands such as Oracle, General Motors, Nestle, DuPont, HP and Dell etc.

Blogging

Joe Pulizzi’s blog is also considered highly influential globally. People refer to his blog to know the latest insights, strategies and content marketing trends across the world.

Social media

Pulizzi is a social media influencer and is active on LinkedIn etc. He also writes for Entrepreneur.com magazine.

Podcasting

Joe Pulizzi is a great podcaster as well. According to the basic principles of content marketing, content should be produced in the formats that are loved by the audiences. Because of the time constraints, many people love to listen to podcasts while driving or even working at their desks. It makes podcasts very popular and emerging form of content. This is one of the reasons why Joe Pulizzi did not ignore this important content format. He runs two podcasts viz. Content Inc. and This Old Marketing. Both of his podcasts are highly popular.

Net worth

There is no reliable data available on the web about the net worth of Joe Pulizzi, but his venture CMI was sold for $17.6 million in 2016.

The best advice from Joe Pulizzi

Go through the gems of advice from Pulizzi below:

  1. Focus all your efforts on to building a loyal audience and you will be able to sell them whatever you want. You can build it easily using the content niche related to your field of business.
  2. Sit with at least five customers or prospects every month and talk to them. You’ll get brilliant ideas and inspiration for your content.
  3. The two things that differentiate the successful from the unsuccessful are — patience and vision. All depends on your thinking. If you think small, you will see small results.
  4. It’s much better to experiment and fail, then not doing anything and succeeding.
  5. Start helping others as soon as you can. This is the yardstick that will dictate your success.
  6. If you want to build a business for the long term, build a community and create content around their needs.
    Courtesy: Inc. Magazine

Final words Joe Pulizzi is not just an entrepreneur; but he is also a thought leader and a teacher. He is loved across the planet for his unique and innovative ideas. If you want to learn content marketing, subscribe to his blog on CMI.

Follow him on Twitter

You can follow Pulizzi on Twitter on his handle @JoePulizzi.

Affiliate Marketers

Jeremy Schoemaker: How to Achieve the Life of Your Dreams

Ever been disappointed with your job?

We’re pretty sure that rhymes with almost all of us.

We fear the uncertainty of the haunting term ‘unemployment’.

If you’re familiar with such a situation, this story is definitely for you.

Even if you’re not, the idea of earning an eight figures salary is irresistible.

So keep on reading!

The story here is the journey of a man from the phase of unemployment to making an eight figures salary.

And not only this, he married the women of her dreams and gets to spend a lot of time with his children, all while earning millions every year.

Sounds like a fairytale?

It is the real-life story of multiple award winning blogger Jeremy Schoemaker.  

From Unemployment to 8-Figure

Born to a teacher and a factory worker, Jeremy grew up in Illinois in the year 1974.

He was raised in an ordinary family, except being walloped by obesity at the age of 14.

He was already 300 pounds by the age of 14 and faced the rejection of various teams and friends in high school.

Things were pretty rough for Jeremy back then. He got the first glimpse of technology only in 1987 when his mom bought him an Apple computer.

Like all other teenagers, Jeremy got hooked to his new device as it his escape to an entirely new life. He played a few games on the computer, wrote a couple of programs and explored the fascinating world of online.

But one thing young Jeremy did not know for sure was what to do with his passion!

Soon, after completing high school, he started selling appliances at a local company. It was then that a customer came in with not the usual intent of buying devices, but to offer Jeremy a job.

It turned out that lady owned an Internet Service Provider company and knew that Jeremy was good at computers. She also offered him a dollar more per hour, than at what he was working back then. Not much to the surprise, Jeremy Schoemaker took the job.

In the next few months, he learnt incredible things about the Internet. Jeremy Schoemaker recalls that it was one of the most exceptional learning experiences of his life. However, after a few years, he decided to quit his job and go back to college to get a degree.

Seldom did Jeremy knew that he would end up making a Macintosh gaming site that would draw calls from companies who wanted to advertise on the website and invest their marketing money on it. It was a life changing experience. But, this isn’t how Jeremy Schoemaker made an eight figures salary!

Soon the dotcom crashed, and Jeremy had to spend every single penny paying bills. He was in debts, excessively overweight, smoking two packs of cigarette every day and figuring what to do with his life.

This happened until a zealous girl inspired Jeremy (who’s now his wife), and he finally decided to set up his blog ShoeMoney.com

Jeremy’s Income Report

Jeremy started his journey to skyrocketing his revenue (which is eight figures primarily), right in 2003 with his blog ShoeMoney.com. He also took his ringtone company NextPimp to an unprecedented level.

It was a nothing less than a dream when Jeremy received a $130,000 cheque from Google AdSense for a month.

It was more money than he made in his entire 10-year career.

Jeremy later launched AuctionAds, an eBay affiliate marketing service that won multiple awards.

His blog has been named as the best affiliate marketing blog and has been ranking in the top 50 of the Technorati’s list.

His monthly income report, published on his blog ShoeMoney.com is a detailed insight for people so that they understand the effect of each action that he takes on his income.

Jeremy Schoemaker Keynote at Affiliate Summit West 2012

Here are 5 Proven Tips From Jeremy

Jeremy Schoemaker’s journey to achieving success has been through a lot of ups and downs that includes conquering fears and fighting the battle of resistance arising within oneself.

His top tips from will help you achieve your dream in life and make money far more money via blogging than you could do with your regular job.

Embrace new Trends

One of Jeremy’s greatest tips for emergent bloggers and enthusiasts is to embrace new trends.

Jeremy was a regular computer enthusiast, but his passion for digging deep and exploring into the further never ended.

He took new opportunities and never missed a chance to learn something new.

To capitalise on the opportunities, one must keep on embracing new trends and discover opportunities within them.

Exploit your opportunities

As you embrace new trends, stick to your course and exploit your opportunities, because that’s when you discover new potential for levelling up your business. Jeremy Schoemaker calls it the Coke Theory.

His point is that if you’re selling coke, why to restrict yourself to it. You can also capitalise on opportunities and sell diet coke, flavour coke, cherry coke etc. and earn profits from them as well.

Believe in what you know

Jeremy focussed on his core or primary skills which were marketing for SMG and then managing the backend, which was a secondary skill. Later he invested in a professionally done design and continued to focus on his primary ability.

And it’s nothing new. If you want to explore opportunities and make them work for real, take time to focus on something that you phenomenally know.

Focus on small changes

The saying goes, ‘Little drops of water make the mighty ocean’.

Focus on the little aspects of your marketing and do not be afraid to experiment with them.

Once you have base traffic and engagement built, small changes can help you earn significant revenue.

Consider the placement of your ad, your design, CTA etc. and record the difference in response.

Keep an eye on the significant revenue

Jeremy Schoemaker highlights that little changes made to your blog help in driving significant revenue for your business.

Recurring subscriptions, affiliate marketing, changing the placement of banners and CTA etc.

Keep a close eye on how these responses impact your revenue. If things don’t work, you can always go back.

With his inspirational story and tips, Jeremy Schoemaker inspires people and young bloggers never to curb their desire to learn something new and experiment with it.

After all the best way to succeed and earn big is to put your learnings to action and watch the results skyrocket!