In today's episode, I interview Mark Fortune, one of the 5 authors of The Small Business Owner's Guide to Local Lead Generation.  We discuss the subject of chapter two of our book, which is how to create a killer marketing strategy for your business. 

At long last, my new book The Small Business Owner's Guide to Local Lead Generation has been published, and is now available on Amazon!  In honor of the launch, I'll be releasing several interviews with the authors on this podcast this week, but in today's episode I tell you about the bonus offers we've put together for people who buy the book. 

In today's episode, I tell you about a new tool that helps increase your followers on Twitter--with REAL twitter accounts, not fake accounts set up just to pad your numbers.  I've used the tool myself both with my own account and with the Twitter account for the Small Business Owner's Guide to Local Lead Generation book that I'm publishing next week.  The tool added over 150 followers to the book's twitter account in the first 48 hrs--and it's still growing rapidly.

First, an important announcement: my new book, The Small Business Owner's Guide to Local Lead Genertation, is now available for pre-order as a Kindle book.  Both the printed and Kindle versions of the book will be released on June 22nd.

In today's episode, I discuss some common scams perpetrated by less than honest marketing people in order to separate small business owners from their hard-earned money.  These scammers are very clever, and sometimes even highly intelligent and otherwise street-smart business owners fall for these scams. 

It recently came to my attention that in numbering my podcast episodes, I missed number 128.  In order to bring my episode number back into alignment with the numbers assigned by iTunes, I am releasing an un-numbered episode.  In this non-episode, I provide updates on several new developments in my business, including a free tool on my website that will generate a SEO report card for your business.

In today's episode, I interview David Wilson, the author of the book I Hate Networking Events.  This short, entertaining book is packed with valuable advice about how to be a better networker, and in our interview David shares some of the best advice he gives in the book.  David not only has years of networking experience as a business owner, he has experience teaching networking skills to other business owners as part of his role as a chapter director consultant for BNI Central Virginia.    Listen to today's episode to learn some of his secrets to success.

I've very excited that season three of The Profit has started, because it's a show that I think every small business owner in America should watch.  If you aren't familiar with the show, the concept is that each episode investor Marcus Lemonis helps one struggling small business fix what's wrong with the business using his "people, process, product" approach.  Sometimes the projects are successful, and sometimes they're not.  Usually in the latter case it's the business owner's fault, which is why I think every business owner in America needs to watch the show.  You see, it's easy for us to look an another business and see why the way they're operating is a huge disaster...but it can be harder to look at our own businesses and see the mistakes we're making.  This show helps us learn how to do that better.

In today's episode, I talk about the three types of marketing professionals--providers, coaches, and consultants.  Each type of marketing professional has advantages and disadvantages, and each one can help a business in powerful ways...however, sometimes a small business owner chooses the wrong type of marketing professional.  Also, sometimes a business owner doesn't actually understand which type of professional they are working with--for example, they might be working with a marketing coach and believe that they are working with a provider.  This can lead to frustration when the business doesn't get the results they are expecting.  Listen to this episode to clear up the confusion about the different roles of marketing professionals and decide which one is right for you--if any.

The practice of white labeling is widely used in the small business marketing world, but it is not always used in the way that it was intended.  In fact, sometimes it can really land a company in hot water.  Learn what white labeling is, how it is abused, and what questions you should ask marketing professionals you work with about it. 

One problem I see often is graphic designers who learn how to write code and start offering web design services, but who have no SEO or marketing knowledge.  Their websites don't generate traffic and covert that traffic to leads, as a good website should.  In order to separate the good from the bad, make sure your web designer can answer correctly answer the five questions I ask in this episode.  If they can't, consider using Redpoint Marketing Consultants for your web design needs.