How to Market Online...for a Fraction of the Cost

I want to tell you a true story about marketing & advertising.
Several years ago, when most advertising/marketing efforts
were still done via print media, I met a marketing "consultant"
who guaranteed to refund my money in full, if I didn't get at
least a 200% return on the fee I would pay him to conduct a
marketing campaign for my company.

He even took me out to lunch in his attempt to woo my business.
(I learned a long time ago, that if let people who are trying to sell
you something, talk as much as they want to, you'll learn some
very valuable information)

Over lunch the consultant unwittingly told me about a visit he
had made to one of his clients.
He told me that as he sat in this client's office, he couldn't help
notice a large bookshelf behind his client's desk- stacked with
all kinds of books on advertising & marketing.

Then the consultant hung himself.
He looked me straight in the eye & in his own words said,
"I thought to myself, What does this guy need me for with
all those books?"

What the consultant was telling me is that , he,
(the marketing expert)
had read the same books as his client and was in effect ,
selling this businessman information he (the client)
already possessed, but had failed to act upon.

That's what I think most internet consultants do.
They've just read the books & then sell the info
back to us at an outrageous profit margin.

Are you a website owner, who is as fed up as I am,
when it comes to all those "consultants" who are
always in your face bragging how they can drive
your website to the very top of the rankings on Google?

Are you intimidated by the words ONLINE
MARKETING because the so-called "experts" have
unnecessarily made it a mysterious & complicated subject?

Ticked about their exorbitant fees.

From my own research I know that, in the 21st century,
Search Engine Optimization & Social Media, are the
pillars of online marketing... for all businesses
- both large & small.

As a small business owner I've decided to free myself
from the grip of these characters and investigate how
this whole online marketing thing works myself.

To this end I'm studying 2 books that I discovered on on Amazon.com;

1) "The Art of SEO, Mastering Search Engine Optimization".
This comprehensive book was written by four SEO professionals;
Eric Enge,(Stone temple Consulting)
Stephan Spencer (Netconcepts)
Rand Fishkin SEOmoz)
Jessie Stricchiola ( Alchemist media Inc.)

Together they have over 35 years of search engine optimization experience.
The goal of this book is to simplify a seemingly complicated & layered topic,
which is the reason why I chose this book from the hundreds of other
SEO books out there.

2) The other pillar of my online marketing adventure is the book
" The Social Media Marketing Book "

Its' author Dan Zarrela - the inbound marketing manager for HubSpot -
has written extensively about the science of viral marketing in blogs
including Mashable, CopyBlogger, ReadWriteWeb, Plagariam Today,
ProBlogger, Sopcial Desire, CenterNetworks, Nowsourcing, & SEOScoop.


My plan is to study these books, page by page and immediately apply the
knowledge I gain from the expert advice of the authors to my own websites.

I will post the results of my investigation weekly, starting next week.
Please fell free to take advantage of my research for your own purposes.

In helping myself, I hope that I will help you.Eventually we will help each other.