I love talking about future stuff. Especially when it comes to Internet marketing, which is near and dear to my heart. So I’m very pleased, and proud, to say that I’ll be joining some of the Web’s heaviest hitters this Thursday on a free teleseminar called What’s Next in Internet Marketing.

The internet has become the essential hub for all business and personal communications. Join Internet Marketing Experts Jay Berkowitz, Rohit Bhargava, Maria Harrison, Jim Kukral, Joe Laratro, David McInnis, Mari Smith and Richard Stanton, to find out what is coming next in marketing online.

The All-Star Panel will include the following Internet Marketing Gurus:
- Jay Berkowitz, Keynote Speaker and Author of the Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing
- Rohit Bhargava, Marketing Blogger and Author of “Personality Not Included”
- Maria Harrison, Interactive Marketing Genius
- Jim Kukral, The Biz Web Coach
- Search expert Joe Laratro
- Multi-Million dollar internet entrepreneur David McInnis Founder of PRWeb and People Pond
- Facebook Goddess Mari Smith
- Web Semantics expert Richard Stanton, CEO of Bintro.com

Look at that lineup! I hope you’ll join us for the call. I hope to learn a lot from the others. I’ll be covering some issues on mobile as well as something new that everyone will be doing in the next few years that will create an entire new revenue stream for regular (that means non-Internet geek) people.

You don’t want to miss this. Sign up for free now.

Guy Kawasaki sent this article out on Twitter this morning, and wow, it’s great. It’s a story about how small is the new big.

The author states…

The gap of confidence between small companies and big ones is growing. We used to rely on the security of big companies. That’s why we worked for them. And hired them. And put our money in them. But with the virtual collapse of AIG, Lehman, Citibank, GM, Chrysler, and many more — now even GE is in trouble — all that’s changed. Now it’s a risk to do business with the big ones.

How true is that? And how much excitement and hope does that put in your heart as an entrepreneur and small business owner? It should.

Then the author makes the best point of the article.

We simply don’t trust companies anymore. We trust people. And in big companies, it’s hard to even find a person to trust as we scream “operator” into our telephones only to get transferred to another menu whose options have changed. That gives small companies a huge advantage.

He’s right, we don’t trust large companies anymore. We trust people, and that is why social networking has exploded so fast. We’re able to connect with one another and spread referrals using these tools when in the past we didn’t need to as much because we’d just “hire the big firm”.

If you’re not taking advantage of this trend right now, you’re a fool. Sorry to put it so blatant, but honestly, it’s time for you to wake up! It’s time for you to get going and build trust for you and your firm.

Look around… Trust is now more important than ever today. Do you have it? Are you building it?

It’s so easy to do nowadays. Not like it was when I started. Get started today.

Here’s a few more tidbits from the article.

Big investment banks are burning — but lots of small boutique firms, each with ten to twelve people, are opening up. And they’re doing well. They’ve gone back to the fundamentals. Finding a niche in which they have value to add and deals in which they are experts. And then sitting across from other people in the deal, building the relationship, making reasonable commitments, and following through.

Small companies with low overhead, reliable owners, a small number of committed employees, personal client relationships, and sustainable business models that drive a reasonable profit are the great opportunity of our time.

Small is the new big. Sustainable is the new growth. Trust is the new competitive advantage.

Over at my coaching site, TheBizWebCoach.com ($1.00 Trial), I’m constantly interviewing the movers and shakers and experts in the online marketing world. Here’s another interview you will enjoy. Please leave a comment.

Matthew Scott knows how to sell stuff. He spent years in the military as a Special Forces Psychological Warfare specialist.

No, I’m not kidding. So do you think someone with that type of training understands how to get into the minds and hearts of a customer? He sure does! If you want to learn how to sell more, and sell better, you’ll enjoy this podcast interview.

Listen to the podcast with Matt here.

The Biz Web Coach talks with sales and marketing veteran Matthew Scott of LifesWorkGroup.com about how you can become a better salesperson and marketer.

About Matthew Ray Scott

I entered the United States Army in 1985 serving in various leadership positions as a combat infantryman, a Special Forces Psychological Warfare specialist, commanding combat medics during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq, and a paratrooper Captain with the legendary 82nd Airborne Division.

In 1994, I made the decision to leave the military hoping I could better integrate my family and career life. At the age of 30 years old, I realized I did not have a process or plan to uncover what career decision I should make next, let alone understand how to uncover my unique purpose or life’s work.

So, I decided to choose a position as a sales and marketing consultant in the biotechnology market after leaving the military and within seven years, I was a Co-Developer and a Vice President, Sales for a biotechnology company in San Diego, California.

In 2004, the biotechnology business unit I co-developed, sold for 16x times earnings. I had surpassed every career and financial goal I set for myself after leaving the military. After this event, I began to ask the questions that would direct my life’s work fulfilling my definition of success and significance. My discoveries led to the formation of The Life’s Work Group, Inc.

I serve as the Founder & Managing Director, The Strategic Incubator, a global consulting firm equipping leaders to align strategic vision with a tactical execution of revenue producing activities in taking a great idea and building a revenue-producing process.

I also am the Managing Partner of The Trunk Club, a company that revolutionizes the way men shop for clothing and define their authentic style.

I completed my Masters Degree in Management in 1991 and completed certification as a Certified Professional Coach sanctioned by the International Coaching Federation (ICF) in 2006.

I reside in Oregon with my wife and three children living with intention next to the ski trails of Mt. Hood and the vineyards of Willamette Valley. I am scheduled to publish my book, men@pause: executive men in transition in early February 2009.

Over at my coaching site, TheBizWebCoach.com ($1.00 Trial), I’m constantly interviewing the movers and shakers and experts in the online marketing world. I thought I’d share some of those with you over the next few weeks. So stay tuned to this blog for more interviews.

Today we’ll start with an interview I did with Tim Ash, CEO of a landing page optimization firm called Sitetuners.com.

Listen to the podcast here.

Landing pages are probably one the most important things to know about when attempting to be successful in the Internet marketing arena. Ok, not probably, they ARE one of the most important things.

This interview is with Tim Ash, CEO of the world’s most prolific landing page optimization firm at Sitetuners.com. Tim is also the author of a best-selling book called Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions .

This is a must-listen interview. Tim gives away his best tips, tricks and secrets about how you should be approaching your landing page strategies. You’ll walk away from this interview with a better idea of how important your landing pages are, and the knowledge of how to get started making, and improving, new or existing landing pages.

I also HIGHLY recommend the express landing page optimization for $500. This is a $5k value in my opinion. I’ll be using it.

Face it. If you’re a PR or advertising agency, or corporation or anything like that, the time has finally come for you to learn about all this social media stuff.

Sigh, I know, I know. You thought maybe it would go away. You thought maybe your clients would stop asking you about it or your boss would forget that you were supposed to research it. The truth is that social media is here to stay and right now, with this poor economy, there is simply not a better way to not spend money than to market with social media.

Yes, I said “not spend” money. Because that’s what social media can do for businesses. It’s a way around buying those television ads that keep going up in price but bring less results. It’s another, better option to those magazine ads that are great for branding, but bring poor results.

I get 2-3 calls every single day from people asking about how they learn more about social media. Either from public relations agencies or executives at corporations looking for guidance.

Are you a PR or advertising agency?
Are your clients asking you how they should use things like Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed and you don’t know what to tell them?

Never let a client leave you because you couldn’t serve their needs! Now’s the time to educate your team and form a social media plan you can sell to your clients that works. Read more.

Are you a corporation in need of a social media trainer?
Now’s the time to educate your team and form a social media plan that can generate more leads, sales and publicity for your business.

Your team can do it, and do it well… If they have the right road map to success and the knowledge and tools they need to get the job done. Read more.

I hold the following statement below to be one of the most accurate statements I’ve ever made.

The Affiliate Summit is by far the best conference in the industry today, by far.

Disclaimer: Yeah, I’m the emcee, and yeah, I’m friends with the owners. And yeah, I’ve got $100 off exclusive coupons for attendees. (Get that here).

That doesn’t matter. It’s the best show because it’s not just about affiliate marketing. I almost wish they would change the title, because honestly, and I’ve been saying this for years, people who do affiliate marketing do ALL internet marketing.

So the Affiliate Summit is really a conference that covers everything. Not just search, not just email, not just landing pages, not just pay-per-click…

EVERYTHING.

Do yourself a favor and come join me and over 3,000 other people at the Rio in Vegas this January. I just booked my flight today. Wow, the prices on flights have come down.

Note: If you’re worried about extra costs like hotel and food and all that. Honestly, I don’t think any other conference has you covered better than Shawn & Missy do.

You get a really nice lunch every day. You get tons of drink tickets. (I don’t remember having to buy a drink at the past 5 shows.) The parties at night all have food usually. Your expenses are really your hotel and flight and gambling if you want to.

Here’s an offer for you. If this is your first time, and you use my link to register, and if you go and you tell me after you didn’t learn anything, I’ll feature your website or blog on JimKukral.com for a month after.

See you there.

It’s the night before my big launch. My big rebrand. The unveiling of the new me and the new business I’ll be running. My latest Frankenstein.

And I feel like I’m going to puke.

It’s natural… It happens to me every time I launch something big. Before I launched Scratchback, I felt the same way. Everyone does.

It’s the curse of a serial entrepreneur. Yes, we’re very good at taking criticism, and dealing with failure, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have fears like everyone else. It just means we’re good at letting it go after we’ve failed or succeeded, either way.

What do you mean? Fear of what?

Fear that what we’ve built is going to look lame to others. Fear that all the countless hours we spent working on the project won’t pay off. Fear that our spouse will, once again, look at us with those eyes and think “you said this time it was going to be different. This was the big one.”

Fear that it’s time to go back to the drawing board, yet again.

I’m there, right now. Tomorrow at Noon EST I’m launching, and right now I feel like I want to take a boat across Lake Erie to Canada and hide out and come back 3-days after and see what happened.

If you’re a marketer, or artist, or anyone who “puts your stuff out there”, you should know what I’m feeling.

The good news is… I know this will pass. I know what I’ve done is going to work. I know that I’m passionate about what I’ve built and I know that it’s what I want to do. That’s how I know I’m an entrepreneur.

What else can you ask for? I’m taking my shots… are you? You’ll never know unless you do. The fear will pass, believe me.

See you all Wednesday, November 12 at Noon est. It’s going to be a great day.

Seriously. Stop sending boring press releases that don’t work. It’s a huge waste of money. Grab a copy of Peter Shankman’s book for a few bucks and learn why, and how you’re going to save thousands.

Book title: Can We Do That?! Outrageous PR Stunts That Work–And Why Your Company Needs Them

Peter is the guy who brought us HelpaReporterOut.com (HARO), which is a great resource if you haven’t signed up yet, go now and do it. Back to the book…

This is a must-read book for you as a small business or brand that’s wants publicity, and you should. Spend the money and read this book and thank me later. And yes, those are my affiliate links in the video widget below. If you buy from clicking on them I get like 10 cents or something, lol.

Check out Pete’s blog too. Good stuff.

Quick, let’s get on Skype and chat. That’s what I said yesterday on Twitter and I was able to get Rob McNealy from StartupStoryRadio.com on a recording where we ended up having a great discussion about marketing and propaganda.

Rob runs a social media marketing company, so we discussed how that business operates and went back and forth on the definitions of deception and intent and propaganda when it comes to marketing. We also delved into the USA presidential race and the marketing used by each party/candidate.

I found it to be an insightful conversation and I think you’ll enjoy the listen, especially if you’re a marketer.

In this world, you have to give to get back. So when I started getting about 10 emails a day asking me how I make my web videos, I had two options.

1. Create a guide about how I do it and sell it for profit. Or…
2. Create a guide about how I do it and just give the darn thing away, for free.

I choose the free route. Introducing, OnlineVideoToolkit.com. A free video guide that shows you everything I know about making web videos using inexpensive equipment. I produced about 10 videos showing you all my secrets about lighting, set design, cameras to buy, clothing tips, sound, etc… It’s all there, with more to come.

I even have a contest for the launch. Want to win my Flip camera? Watch the video below. Note: The dates have been extended on this video, you have plenty of time to enter, don’t worry about it.

I hope you enjoy it!