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Virtual Speaker l Hall of Fame Nominee
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Do you really need publishing services when you are publishing on the web?

2:01 pm/10 Comments/in Consultant and Speaker Marketing, Uncategorized /by Aidan Crawford

It’s a question I’ve thought about an awful lot over the last couple of years, if you’re going to be publishing on the web, do you really need the publishing services offered by the big publishers?

In 2007 when I began working with author and speaker Jim Clemmer, I was lucky enough to learn, first-hand, from someone who had sold hundreds of thousands of books using the traditional publisher route and several hundred thousand copies as a self published author the difference between working with traditional publishing services and going it alone.

The biggest difference was that when you sell books through a publisher you need to sell many more books to make the same amount of money you’d make selling less books as a self-publisher.

One of the first projects I worked on with Jim was his business-fable Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work.

Taking the book from manuscript to print was not a huge issue. But we hit a wall when it came to distribution and marketing.

At that point we were focused on getting the book into stores and getting the word out to the public to do this:

  • We scheduled webinars
  • Went on a cross country seminar tour
  • Created a website – www.mooseonthetable.com
  • Sent thousands of postcards to our mailing lists
  • Promoted the books in Jim’s monthly newsletter
  • Sent out targeted email blasts to the database based on what products and services contacts had purchased in the past.
  • Built a YouTube Channel and loaded it with chapter summaries and other videos
  • Created an iPhone Application
  • Hit just about every Breakfast Television show in the country

We were able to do all this ourselves.

In the end the book didn’t sell nearly as well as we’d hoped. And as best I can figure, it was because it was so completely different from Jim’s previous books, that it didn’t resonate with his core audience and it didn’t catch fire with the general public.

We did cover all our bases from a marketing perspective.

But distribution was a big hole. The book wasn’t available everywhere and we were trying to sell as many copies as we could through Jim’s main site – jimclemmer.com. The problem with this is that even with 500 unique visitors dropping by each day, most of them weren’t going to buy a book.

Jim’s next book was more in keeping with what he’d done in the past. Growing at the Speed of Change is, as Jim likes to describe it “inspir-actional.”

While we did many of the same things we did with Moose, this time we were able to remove one of the great barriers to self-published authors – distribution.

With GSC, opted for Print on Demand using LightningSource.com which immediately made the book available in Canada, US, UK and EU at local pricing and shipping through Amazon and other e-tailers. Better still – the books were almost always listed as “in-stock” and “usually ships in 24 hrs.”

While were were setting this up we added all of Jim’s previous books to the POD system – including a two books that had been out of print for over 20 years.

And guess what? They sold some copies as well!

Another avenue we explored was ebooks. Using Smashwords.com, we were able to create e-book versions of Moose on the Table, Growing at the Speed of Change and The Leader’s Digest, which are now available for the Kindle, iPad and other devices.

Distribution was always one of the major advantages of going with one of the major publishing houses. But with LightningSource this advantage disappears. Self published authors can now, for the first time, go it alone and keep most of the profits in their own pockets.

https://shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LogoColorTextRight-3-300x61.png 0 0 Aidan Crawford https://shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LogoColorTextRight-3-300x61.png Aidan Crawford2011-04-19 14:01:512015-08-19 18:15:14Do you really need publishing services when you are publishing on the web?

Quick tips to improve your marketing

2:19 pm/1 Comment/in Consultant and Speaker Marketing, Uncategorized /by Aidan Crawford

Back in December, I was an exhibitor at the CAPS Conference  in Montreal and as part of my follow-up, and as a thank you to everyone who attended, I’ve been reviewing sites and passing along recommendations to help folks improve their online marketing efforts in 2011.

I’ve noticed a lot of speaker sites need exactly the same things and so I’m putting this out there to help everyone in the group kick-start their marketing in 2011.

The first thing I’ll tell you is that I’m not recommending anything you can’t do yourself. I’m even including links to help you access the tools I’m talking about.

Obviously. I’m hoping you’re far too busy and you’ll hire me to do the work. But if not, at least you’ll have a pretty extensive to-do list .

The first thing I noticed is folks aren’t maximizing all the free Facebook integration tools.

There are 500 million folks on Facebook and it is one of your best opportunities to find more clients.

To do this you can:

  • add a Facebook “Like” button to every page on your site. This allows folks to share your site with their friends.
  • create a Facebook Fan Page that integrates your Linkedin profile, Twitter feed, blog and e-newsletter feeds, and display that fan page box on your homepage.
  • replace the default comments on your WordPress blog with Facebook Comments. This will eliminate spam and comments will appear in visitor’s status, so all their friends will see a link back to you site.

If you’re currently you’re using a profile instead of a Fan Page –  it’s a mistake I’m seeing over and over again as I do these reviews. There is a key distinction. With a profile page, you never know who is going to see your updates, but with a Fan Page everyone gets a notification.

Here is a link to grab the Facebook code:

http://developers.facebook.com/

Your books and audios

I recommend setting up an account with LightningSource.com and moving them to Print on Demand. Lightning Source is owned by Ingram, so your books will be available around the world through their catalogue as well as Amazon.com – USA, Canada, UK, EU.

Why POD? Very simple. If you are taking care of fulfilment yourself, Amazon is probably only taking 5 or 10 copies at a time. This means your books are probably showing as “Usually ships with 3-4 weeks.” With Lightning Source your books are always “Ships within 24hrs.” And that’s in Canada, US, UK and EU!

PDF e-books are great – or at least they were 3 years ago. Have you thought about offering your books as e-books for the iPad, Kindle and other readers? All you need to do is set up an account at Smashwords.com. Did I mention it’s a free service? In addition to being able to sell your books on your own site, your ebooks will also be available on the iTunes store, Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

As for your audios, if you sell cds, why not create downloadable MP3 versions? Are you selling them on iTunes? Why not??

Videos/podcasting

As a speaker, you probably have boxes of videos you aren’t using. Why not chop them up and create a custom YouTube channel? Or use them for a Podcast distributed through iTunes. All you need is an xml file and some content!

Quick onsite changes:

Have a look at this tool and see what keywords you should be using in your copy to get more visits: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Set up a Google Webmaster (www.google.com/webmasters)  account and submit your xml site map. –

There’s obviously loads more, but if you just get the Facebook stuff done, you should see some real benefits.

Send me a note if you want a more personalized free consultation.

https://shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LogoColorTextRight-3-300x61.png 0 0 Aidan Crawford https://shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LogoColorTextRight-3-300x61.png Aidan Crawford2011-03-28 14:19:072015-08-19 18:15:14Quick tips to improve your marketing

Some completely attainable goals for 2011

9:16 am/in Consultant and Speaker Marketing, Uncategorized /by Aidan Crawford

Whether you do it yourself or hire someone else, here are ten completely attainable marketing goals for 2011 that will help you take your business to the next level.

  • Take a look at your site from the viewpoint of a visitor. What is it you’re offering them? That’s the reason they are there and that’s the only reason they will hire you.
  • Invest in a bit of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). How much is your time worth? Should you really be the one looking for keywords and trying to figure out how to get a better placement on Google?
  • Install Analytics on your site. Find out how many folks are actually coming and set a realistic goal for improvement.
  • If you have videos, create a custom YouTube Channel. How many folks come to your site compared to YouTube? Build the channel bring your content to a whole new audience.
  • Link all your social media together. Whenever you send out a newsletter, publish a blog post or update your status – let it show up everywhere automatically.
  • Create a podcast and update it once a month. You’re a speaker. Speak.
  • Try a webcast.
  • Look into POD (print on demand) services that will get your books onto Amazon sites across the world.
  • Turn your books into ebooks through Smashwords.com. They now provide content for the Amazon Kindle, Sony e-reader and Barnes and Noble Nook.

These are all perfectly reasonable goals to get you charged up for success in the new year.

As I said, you can do all this yourself. But it makes much more sense to have a professional do the job. Click here and see what I can do for you.

https://shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LogoColorTextRight-3-300x61.png 0 0 Aidan Crawford https://shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LogoColorTextRight-3-300x61.png Aidan Crawford2011-03-25 09:16:312015-08-19 18:15:14Some completely attainable goals for 2011

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Marketing and Coaching Services for Consultants, Speakers and Trainers

4:08 pm/by Aidan Crawford


BOOK A 30 MINUTE EXPLORATORY CALL

Why wouldn’t you work with a marketing firm with over 10 years experience helping Consultants, Speakers and Trainers succeed?

Prospecting clients is hard enough without having to take care of your own marketing.

If you are a professional speaker, trainer or consultant struggling to master marketing, you are probably wasting time that could be better used prospecting and qualifying clients.

Short Circuit Media works with speakers, trainers and consultants who are too busy to do their own marketing, need more strategy than a VA brings to the table, and don’t want to add a full time marketing person to the team.


There are a million different companies swimming in the same pool offering virtually identical services.  So the key is not look for the best – most are pretty good – but rather the agency that works best for you. If you are a speaker, trainer or consultant we may just be the agency you’re looking for!

4-pillars-of-marketing

Here‘s how we’ll work to grow your business

UNDERSTAND


Choosing-a-marketing-firm-for-consulting-business

STRATEGIZE


marketing-strategy

EXECUTE


launching-a-marketing-plan

SUPPORT


marketing-support-for-consulting-business

We take the time to fully understand  your business model. What is it you do? Who are your clients? Why are they going to give you a big fat check for speaking at their event or training their people?

These are important questions that you need to know. And if you don’t know them, that’s where we’re going to start. By helping you define your message and align it to an audience, we will make you successful.

From there we’ll present you with a number of strategies that will help get you in front of the decision-makers. This may include a:

  • Website makeover
  • Social Media Integration
  • blog writing, newsletters, podcasting
  • Targeted advertising on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook
  • Content development

You get the point…

Here’s where the fun begins. After we tell you what needs to be done, we’ll do the hard work for you!

We implement the strategies we’ve come up for you; taking care of the technology and arranging the resources to make what we’ve discussed happen.

Simple as that.

For many clients, this is when the relationship takes off.

Once we have a marketing plan implemented, you can choose to take on the challenge of keeping it going yourself, use your existing staff or you can retain us as your very own marketing department; composing and deploying eblasts, writing blogs, sending out newsletters, producing podcasts and assisting in product development, while helping you create and implement new strategies to make your speaking, consulting or training business grow.

Speak to us today

Partial client list

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Speak to us today

People Like Us!


Ed-Rigsbee

I truly enjoy working with Aidan. His helpfulness with my organization’s Internet marketing needs, strategy, and implementation is beyond excellent. Aidan works hard to invest his clients resources where the absolute best yield is delivered. I can highly recommend Aidan for your Internet needs.

Ed RigsbeeRigsbee Researchhttp://rigsbee.com – http://rigsbee.com
Kurt-Shaver-LinkedIn-Speaker

Aidan revamped my website, set up SEO, and connected all social media tools. My traffic has skyrocketed. He is a marketing strategist with tactical know-how. Pleasant to work with and super responsive. I would recommend him to anyone that wants to leverage the web to boost their visibility.

Kurt ShaverThe Sales Foundryhttp://thesalesfoundry.com – http://thesalesfoundry.com

Your one on one coaching in the past has helped me exponentially with refreshing my brand, designing my new website, targeting my market to align with my presentations, and so much more! You truly are THE go-to marketing guy!! Thank you!

Lisa LelasSpeaker/seminar leaderhttp://lisalelas.com – http://lisalelas.com
Rhonda-Scharf-speaker

Aidan is a pleasure to work with. He works fast, he stays on schedule and keeps you informed every step of the way. I find him very responsive (which I love), very easy to work with and his work is good! I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Aidan if you need help getting your website to where it should be.

Rhonda ScharfSpeakerhttp://dealingwithdifficultpeople.org/ – http://dealingwithdifficultpeople.org/

https://i0.wp.com/shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/stencil.twitter-1-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1 675 1200 Aidan Crawford https://shortcircuitmedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/LogoColorTextRight-3-300x61.png Aidan Crawford2011-09-09 16:08:112019-10-29 14:47:45Marketing and Coaching Services for Consultants, Speakers and Trainers

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