Actually it was not addressed personally to me except in the sense that it had “Dear David” generated automatically by the safelist software.  However, with its subject line, “Tyre Kickers Not Wanted” I’m sure it was addressed to people like me.

What?  Am I admitting to being a tyre kicker? Well, yes, in the sense that the author of this short diatribe meant it.  I’ve signed up for a large number of products and programmes over the years, and also have spent money on many of them.  However, I’ve also taken a close look at many programmes by means of a “free membership” and then decided that although they may suit some people they were not for me … and in a few cases that they were over-inflated garbage and little short of criminal scams.

Bluntly I’m tired of receiving emails suggesting that, because I’m discriminating about where I commit my time and money, I’m some sort of detestable “freebie-seeker”.  I once had an email from a “guru” telling me that because in spite of repeated messages from him I hadn’t bought his expensive product I must be incapable of taking in his valuable teaching.  As he was fed up of emailing me he’d decided to bother me no longer. (Those were not the precise words but they were equally strong).  After that, I certainly would not have sunk into a depression if he’d kept his promise to disconnect me – although of course he didn’t!

The reason why people (including myself) offer free products and services is to attract them to sample what is on offer, and hopefully attract them to buy much more.  There is, however, no obligation to buy more and it has to be expected that a substantial proportion and maybe a majority will not follow through.

The last thing, however, that is likely to encourage them to return for more is an insulting email. What will bring potential customers, current free members or recipients of free offers, to the next stage of a business relationship is not aggression but patient, helpful follow-up for as long as it takes.

- David Murray -

Conventional wisdom says that outbound links from a web site or blog damage its reputation and ranking in the eyes of the search engines.

Logic does support this idea to a considerable degree, but increasingly it is coming under challenge.

SEOmozBlog recently carried a thoughtful article on the subject: 5 Reasons You Should Link Out to Others From Your Website.

What do you think?

Thanks to a tweet on Twitter I’ve just come across this excellent blog post from Darren Rowse at ProBlogger on three stages for shaping your own brand. Short and punchy. Yes, “punchy” in the sense that it hits you between the eyes and forces you to think, “Am I doing this? Or just pretending to?” – How to Shape Your Blog’s Brand.

This afternoon I was setting up and re-setting some of my social networking sites, updating and expanding my LinkedIn profile, and connecting some of the sites together. When I came to Squidoo I found that it was now possible to check how many of my Facebook friends had set up their own Squidoo lenses.

Now I don’t have a very large Facebook following (only around 268, of whom 152 appear to be active) but I was extremely surprised to discover that, even though the majority of these good people are engaged in what can broadly be called the Internet marketing field, only 39 of them have Squidoo lenses.

Within the 39 there is, of course, quite a variety. One has more than sixty Squidoo lenses, and has made these a major plank of his marketing programme. Others have far fewer, or only one.

If you do not yet have (free!!!) Squidoo lenses as a strand in your marketing strategy I would strongly recommend it.

Or maybe you haven’t come across Squidoo.  If not, take a look at this lens which I produced on a subject far removed from Internet marketing last year – William Wilberforce.  Then imagine what you could do with a Squidoo lens on a theme of your marketing activities.  Whereas my Wilberforce lens was non-commercial apart from promoting a few books available at Amazon,  my lens on The English Lake District is unashamedly commercial in that it links to my travel and tourism sites for that part of the UK.

What’s stopping you using this immensely powerful service (which has a Google pagerank of 8 and Alexa rating 504)?