Description:
Get the complete marketing system consisting of 12 lessons in 4 modules (Differentiate and Dominate, Magnificient Marketing Materials, Lead Generation Machine and Harness the Internet) and 12 audio CDs - Its the product of over 20 years of working with some of America's most successful small businesses and independent professionals. Cost is $399

Our take on it:
A well written, practical and organized system that works. Keeps the cost down by enabling you to do much of the work yourself. Is particularly effective when combined with our coaching.

Description:
How to create and promote a small business blog. If you're an independent professional or small business owner, blogs still offer one of the greatest opportunities around to stand out from a crowd, appeal to the media, improve your search engine rankings and find new sources of leads.

Our take on it:
Through the use of video and audio lessons, Blog Lightning clearly explains how you can take advantage of blogging for your business.
Download is $97

Description:
"How to create a flood of new business without spending a dime on advertising"

Our take on it:
An excellent systematic approach to growing your business through referrals. Filled with examples and practical ideas.
Download $97, or binder and CDs $129 + shipping

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We have been particularly impressed with the business and legal books from Nolo Press. They are well written and easy to follow. Some of my favorites are:

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We had been using Skype quite a bit but recently the call quality has dropped off significantly. I'm not sure if it is to do with our internet connection or something at the Skype end but whatever the reason it is not working to the level where I feel it is usable for business. Hopefully that will change.

For a US based person it's main value is in low cost international phone calls at around 2 cents a minute to most places in the world.

Skype to Skype calls are free anywhere in the world.

If you want to call within the US and Canada you can buy an unlimited calling plan for $29.95 a year.

Click the link to the left for more information or to download the free software.

Due to the poor call quality we have been using an alternative service called Jajah. Jajah only uses the computer to place the call. After that it uses traditional landlines or cell phones. Call quality is excellent as it does not rely on your internet connection for the call.

Jajah is slightly more expensive for international calls but well worth it.

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It is very important that you own and control the domain name of your website. DirectNIC is what is known as a domain registrar. This is different from a hosting company (although they do a little of that too). A domain registrar does the work to make sure your domain name (e.g. the www.xyzcompany.com) appears on the web.

DirectNIC give you the ability to point your domain name to the servers of your choice. If you change your website host, you simply change the server pointers in DirectNIC to reflect the new host.

I know of companies that made the mistake of having their hosting company or their website designer do the registration. The result was that they had trouble getting access to their own domain when they wanted to change hosting.

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I use this service myself and it's pretty good.

iContact provides the ability to easily capture and manage leads from your website. You may want to do this so that you can quickly respond to information requests, send follow-up information, newsletters and other communications.

iContact use the term "autoresponder". This means that the system can be set up to automatically respond to customer requests when appropriate.

iContact has a number of useful capabilities including:

• Opt-in/out control
• Newsletter templates
• Statistical reports
• Lots of advice and many other features.

Check out their website for more information.

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Aweber provides similar functionality to iContact. I know many people who like this service also.

Check out their website for more information.

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Logoworks is a great way for a small business to inexpensively get a custom logo and brand identity materials. Depending on the package you pick, a variety of designers present you with up to 10 logo concepts.

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These are stock design templates to help you inexpensively create brochures, newsletters, flyers, ads, etc.

A custom designer may be a better choice (and we can recommend some) if you need designs that are unique and created specifically for you. StockLayouts is the next best thing if you are on a tight budget.

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If you are a contractor you owe it to yourself to check out these folks. Michael & Devon Stone have been in the construction business for years and are great at helping general and specialty contractors structure their businesses to be more profitable.

At their site you will find books, DVDs and coaching information. Sign-up for their blog.

Not only are they effective at helping their clients but they are also good people. I can't say enough nice things about them.

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