From the opening jacket cover:

The Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship at Chicago Booth advances the knowledge and practice of entrepreneurship and innovation. The center supports entrepreneurial learning and collaboration through its cutting-edge curriculum, innovative hands-on learning experiences, leading faculty research, conferences, mentorship, and community
and global outreach programs.

Download now or preview on posterous

PolskyAR2010.pdf (1287 KB)

Startup Lifestyle

If you’ve ever wondered how the US entrepreneurial activity compares to every major country in the world, well, you’re in luck.  This 73-page PDF has enough data, charts, graphs and detail to keep you busy until 2012.  There are some pretty surprising findings in here.

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GEM_Global_2009_Report.pdf (4603 KB)

Entrepreneurs unite!

Instead of prescribing a vitamin, we’re going to start offering pain pills.  Through our network, we’ve managed to identify, organize, and catalog an entire spectrum of extreme expertise in a breadth of areas, whether intangible like business strategy or extremely tangible like development and design.

For lack of a better phrase, we’ve been calling this our “Vouched Referral Database”.  As such, if you’re looking for say, the best of the best logo designer, we can put you in touch with extremely high-quality individuals whose work we’ve either paid for in the past or have extremely close personal relationships with others who have.  The participants have been vetted multiple times, inclusion is by invite only, and only after an arduous application process.

Thus, you no longer have to spend months on an RFP or search process.  You can simply come to Evolyte and ask us for explicitly what and who you need, whether you’re a brand new startup or a small to medium-sized business.

We’re in the process of transferring this database to an online portal and are discussing whether to open a bit more broadly.  In the meantime, however, if you’re interesting in including yourself or your business in our database, or just need someone with niche expertise, feel free to contact me or shoot me a message on Twitter: @seanMeverett.

Past

I’ve spent the last 29 years of my life preparing for 2010.  I started at 8 with my first business (a paper route, duh) and have been hooked on entrepreneurship ever since.  I didn’t know it then but the unending supply of nervous energy I had was meant to be directed specifically into the area of my own startups and helping others run theirs.

I double majored in Mathematics and Actuarial Science in undergrad at the University of Iowa (also had two minors in Business and Statistics), spent all four years with my head buried in a book or behind a computer screen. I didn’t go on spring break, I barely went out. I saw what I wanted and thankfully had the maturity not to waste time on silly endeavors. I studied, worked, read, ran 4 student organizations (including the largest ever at the University of Iowa), was in the President’s campaign plane, and wrote business plans in my spare time, from 8am to 10pm or later, every night.

My parents got married at 18 right after high school and moved into a trailer with nothing to their names but close friends. They worked hard and loved me probably more than I can ever comprehend.  Now they live in Dallas in a brick house.  That’s where my work ethic stems from.  If something needs to get done, you don’t wait, you don’t try to convince someone else to do it, you just finish it.

After working in strategy/management and consulting to companies of all sizes (from startups and small businesses to middle-market companies, and even to enormous, global brand name corporations you visit or buy from on a daily basis…hint: one of them is in the Fortune 2), I started various businesses, one of which is in the process of being sold.

I also applied to and matriculated into one of the top 5 business schools in the nation, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where I’ve met and become close friends with some of the brightest leaders that will be running our country in the next 30 years.

Present

The puzzle pieces have been arduously coming together for the last three decades.  You only see 5% of what’s actually been happening with me and our team.  The number of meetings have accelerated to the point where we can barely keep track of them in our calendars, web apps, phones, etc.

We’ve also spent the last few months visiting the retail, bar and restaurant scene to gather competitive intelligence not only for these brick and mortar Chicago-based businesses, but also to get a deeper understanding of the consumer’s behavioral interaction in these areas.  Like I said, you only ever see 5% of the entire story…

Our team includes a former professional athlete, real estate developer, comedian, attorney, mathematician, entrepreneurs, trader, financial analysts, two MBAs from top 5 schools, and a track record of involvement, relationships, and success that we’d put up against any other team on the planet.

And the best part?  We’ve been friends since we were kids growing up in Iowa.  Family doesn’t even begin to describe our connection.  I am absolutely proud to stand and shout it from the rooftops: no monetary transaction could ever break us up, and we will stand up for our family and our ethics even if it costs us on financial statements.

For the Evolyte team, relationships (both internal and external) define us.  It isn’t always about dollars and cents, it’s first and foremost about establishing lasting relationships.

If you disagree, the conversation stops there.

Future

Some people can talk a huge game and never back it up, or what I like to call “empty suits”.  In contrast, we put our money where our mouth is.  We source deals and invest our time, sweat, and money into only those projects with the highest returns.  We will scrap on our knees, down in the filth in order to win.  We will sell things we don’t use anymore on eBay to compile more cash than you.  We will take on the smallest clients with the smallest budgets if we see potential, and we will still treat them like they’re the only client in our portfolio.

Did you know that the number one reason small businesses fail is due to low or negative cash flow?  The phrase, “cash is king” is an understatement.  I prefer the phrase, “cash is freedom”.  Freedom to follow the return.  And that’s exactly where we’re headed:

Google’s 20% time, 100% of the time.

Every person on the Evolyte team is working on side projects that could potentially be the next Gmail.  Stay tuned, things are about to get interesting.

Here’s one teaser:  we’re currently working on developing a huge network of entrepreneurs in Chicago, partnering with the city’s 15-year-old program that’s collecting dust.  The goal is to provide connections, resources, and money so we can lift the entire startup scene on Chicago’s collective entrepreneurial shoulders.

You may not have heard of us, but you’re damn sure going to feel us.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here but only if you want to

Before I throw it up on eBay I’m willing to sell to my friends for $100 off retail plus no tax.

That’s a total savings of $170 (over 20%)!

Bonus: if you respond and retweet this (Twitter > Facebook) before Cinco de Mayo (that’s May 5th for you non-Spanish speaking readers), I’ll even throw in the hard-to-find Apple iPad case that protects and props it up while watching movies on the Netflix app.

Finally, if you’ve been living in some sort of Amish commune over the last few months, here’s a picture:

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

Excel Database: Seed Accelerators & Their Companies

Full Thesis:  Copying Y Combinator — Why & How

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

The answer is easy, though admittedly, the implementation is a bit more difficult:

• Design: both graphic designers (Photoshop experts) and developers (experts in HTML, the code that runs the website, and CSS, which identifies the look and feel such as colors, placement, font, etc).  These folks should also be experienced in UX and UI (user experience and user interface).  This team member’s value is extremely important, yet also the most easily critiqued (cut your designers some slack!).  Compare the Google homepage to Yahoo’s and you’ll recognize the value.
• Engineering: these folks engineer the algorithm/code and develop it into a workable application.  If your idea is technology-based (e.g., mobile apps, web apps, software), then this will be the most critical team member in the beginning.
• Business: obvious.  Someone with the expertise to manage cash flow (i.e., the number 1 reason new businesses fail), establish pricing strategy, sales/marketing/advertising, legal issues, and most importantly, customer development (i.e., establishing market fit).

I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by a great team covering each of these specialties.

Oh, and one last thing.  While most people believe that going into business with friends can be troublesome, I disagree if it’s with the right group.  The team needs to have a thick skin so when the heated arguments arise (and trust me, they will), egos are not bruised and the team becomes closer, not further away.  Again, I’m lucky in this area as I’ve known a few of my team members for a few decades (and one since I could barely walk!).

If you need help finding the right person, feel free to contact me and I may be able to set you up with someone in my network that can fill in your professional gaps.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

Take a page from Lil Wayne’s playbook.  Say what you will about him as a person, but in terms of immersion I doubt there’s anyone on the planet (other than maybe pre-scandal Tiger Woods) that’s more intensely focused on his or her craft.

“Weezy” records music.  All day.  Everyday.  He carries a large black bag around with his recording gear (a mic, mic stand, simple CD player, etc) and records, whether on the bus traveling or in a hotel (he’s never at home).  He’s rumored to have recorded over 100,000 tracks.

You can now imagine how, after this intense immersion for over a decade, he can recognize an issue with one of his songs as second nature.  His ear is so finely tuned and requires such perfection that he burns through Producers faster than…(well, that’s NSFW).

Translate this level of immersion into sports, your business, or your startup, and you begin to get a picture of how Steve Jobs has made Apple so successful, or how Shawn White or Michael Phelps can make the best in the world look like novices.

Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers calls it the 10,000 Hour Rule, but I just call it Immersion.  If you’re truly passionate about and love the subject, hobby, or business you’re involved in, this should happen naturally.  It shouldn’t be work, it should be exciting.  So go ahead, immerse yourself in something you love and see what happens…

As a bonus, here’s a free download from one of Lil Wayne’s unreleased mixtapes.  As Weezy so eloquently put it, “this is just a mixtape, it don’t have titles, man” so the internet took it upon itself to title it either “Pepto Bismol” or “Let Me Do Me”.  I prefer the latter, enjoy:

Lil Wayne ft Gudda Gudda “Let Me Do Me”

Keep it dirty like I’m lyin in a ditch

Like Eli I’m from New Orlean’s I’m a giant in this b*tch

Move the ‘G’ and add an ‘S’ and put the ‘I’ before the ‘N’

And put the ‘A’ in front of that, and that’s what I am til the end.

That’s a SAINT motherf*cker, simplify it for them

With a funeral comes with a second line at the end.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

Web Writing: The Good, Bad and Ugly

If you don’t have time to read the full post (it’s not that long), this excerpt about sums it up:

Take a page from psychologist Abraham Maslow, who spent his life researching and compiling the human hierarchy of needs. Here’s a breakdown of the needs and desires people try to fulfill, as compiled neatly in the New York Times bestseller Made to Stick:

• Transcendence: help others realize their potential
• Self-actualization: realize your own potential, self-fulfillment, peak experiences
• Aesthetic: symmetry, order, beauty, balance
• Learning: know, understand, mentally connect
• Esteem: achieve, be competent, gain approval, independence, status
• Belonging: love, family, friends, affection
• Security: protection, safety, stability
• Physical: hunger, thirst, bodily comfort

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

1. Wrath — from Sun Tsu’s The Art of War: if angry, then provoke.  An example is Southwest Airlines’s Triple Crown advertisement in which they called out Northwest Airlines for “lying”:
2. Greed — save money or make money (if you’re having trouble with this one, make checks payable to Sean Everett, contact me for the address)
3. Sloth — the strategy to use for laziness is simple — show how easy the product/service is to use.  This sin also helps determine a monetization tactic:  subscription-based payments come to mind.
4. Pride — ah, the ego, which is likely the easiest to exploit.  Just give someone a reason to feel important, and they will throw their time and money at you.  Thanks Foursquare for allowing me to check into the hottest place in the city.
5. Lust – sex sells.  The panel on creating viral videos at SXSW 2010 made this video called Boobies & Kittens to prove a point: sex + cute = marketing juju
6. Envy — greed is a subset of envy, which is a more emotional than material state.  Exploit this sin by using the others-have-it-why-don’t-you tactic.
7. Gluttony — mmm, delicious.  Try watching the Food Network on an empty stomach and you’ll understand this one.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

• bit.ly solved the problem of sharing long links on Twitter (i.e., 140 character limit) by shortening them
• Gmail solved the problem of finding specific emails years later by using their advanced search algorithm
• Facebook solved the problem of the need for human connection by exploiting the laws of 6 degrees of separation and by incorporating picture uploading and tagging

Your “start”-up should start with the customer problem and build out from there.  The closer your problem is to the top of the pyramid below (the classic Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs), the better off your business prospects.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

If you don’t know your business model’s strategy, then you don’t know what it takes to win.

Geographic

• Definition:  a brick-and-mortar business with physical location(s)
• Example:  a retail store
• Success Factors:  site selection (i.e., who can move next door and how can you block competitors?)
• Monetization Tactic:  sales

Channel

• Definition:  eliminate or add a middleman
• Example:  Apple eliminated the chip manufacturer middle-man when they built the iPad (they manufactured their own A4 chip)
• Success Factors:  need extra capital or extra expertise
• Monetization Tactic:  margin

New Technology

• Definition:  any scalable technology (i.e., most of the technology companies that Silicon Valley VC’s fund)
• Example:  Evolyte Analytics, any web app or mobile app
• Success Factors:  does it work and can you protect it?  does the market care?
• Monetization Tactic:  sales (the hockey stick curve)

Image Marketing

• Definition:  luxury goods or services
• Example:  Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Armani
• Success Factors:  better, cheaper different (always choose better & cheaper); how do you create & maintain it in the face of a fickle public?
• Monetization Tactic:  margin

Brand = Awareness + Positive Meaning

Your brand must represent uniqueness and offer value to customers.  In addition, it should meet all four of the following criteria:

1. True
2. Good
3. Beautiful
4. Simple

Low-Cost Producer

• Definition:  produce a high volume of a product at a cost lower than competitors
• Example:  the off brands of products you find at the grocery store
• Success Factors:  how are you cheaper? remove waste (anything not adding value to customer, like Toyota’s jidoka system of continuous improvement); commit to high volume; how easy is it to leapfrog competitor?
• Monetization Tactic:  margin

Social Network

• Definition:  social structure made of individuals or organizations connected by one or more specific types of interdependency (i.e., friendship,  financial exchange, beliefs, knowledge, hobbies, etc.)
• Example:  Twitter, Facebook
• Success Factors:   get big fast; must establish a trusted peer-to-peer relationship network; can you monetize it?
• Monetization Tactic:  margin

High-Performance Image

• Definition:  a premium product or service that needs a “standard” competitor to establish “high-performance” value in customer’s mind
• Example:  Rolex Submariner vs Seiko 100 meter diving watch in 1950s (Seiko’s release a few years after Rolex allowed Rolex to be viewed as a premium and high-performance product)
• Success Factors:  objective measures; committed to low volume (high margin); patient capital (need time to build)
• Monetization Tactic:  margin

Commodity Producer

• Definition:  a product that is exactly the same no matter who produces it (i.e., lacks qualitative differentiation)
• Example:  paper, coal, copper
• Success Factors:  control input or output prices
• Monetization Tactic:  sales

Be A Crook

• Definition:  performing any act that’s against the law
• Example:  white collar crime
• Success Factors:  none, just ask yourself “when do I go to jail?”
• Monetization Tactict:  sales

Important Note:  for any type of fad or inherently unpredictable business (e.g., fashion, financial services, etc.), these strategies reach their limits

Special thanks to Greg Bunch for compiling some of this information.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

The Idea

1. First you need to pick an industry or a field.  This shouldn’t be too difficult because it should be an area you’re already passionate about (e.g., Apple products, fashion, music, etc).
2. Then, immerse yourself in this area.  Find the most relevant blog posts, comment on them, and start tweeting about it.  Join a few of the most popular Facebook fan pages and take notice of the strategies and conversations taking place.
3. Next, you need to start expanding your knowledge from the most popular sites, blogs, and fan pages to the more obscure yet still highly touted experts in the area.  If you’re not following at least 50 blogs and 100 twitters in your specific niche area, and reading most of the information, then you’re not fully immersed yet.
4. By now you should be auto-magically identifying shortfalls, holes, and gaps in the industry.  These areas will soon become your playground because you’ve just found the un-tapped niches containing no competition.
5. Now all you have to do is find the one that most appeals to you and you believe you can create an impact in.
6. The rest is just details and execution.

The Rest

One piece of advice, though.  As you start to explore your new found idea, figure out a plan that gets you to the end goal as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.  You will not have the time or energy to go down side paths.  That’s not to say your idea will not change, however.  I have iterated multiple times before finally finding the appropriate idea that resonates with the market.  For more detail in this area, read my other post, Entrepreneurship, which will show you how to develop the customer fit.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

Some people say the irony of funding is that you can’t get it until you don’t need it anymore.

I believe that the vast majority of startups, especially those that are not capital intensive, should not spent the ridiculous amount of time trying to woo potential investors for two reasons:

1. Spend the time and money investing in your business and talking to customers about what they want in your product/service
2. Money isn’t the answer and it makes you lazy.  Instead of finding creative solutions to your problems, you’ll just throw money at them and burn through the cash (and therefore equity) much faster than you would otherwise.

I believe that the best businesses are those that create recurring revenue streams.  Things that you spend the time setting up once, then the marginal cost for selling an additional unit is zero.  An example is a subscription-based web app.  You sign up and until you cancel, they continue to charge your credit card every month.

You keep leveraging past successes in this area (in terms of profits, experience, and reputation) to build your next venture and so on, and so forth.  Here’s the theory I use:

• I like to start one type of business:  low barriers to entry
• I compete and win based on two basic principles:  simplicity and exponentially better execution

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!  I feel like I’m beating a dead horse to death, but there’s so much complexity still out there I feel it’s my mission to keep breakin’ it down like a fraction.

Executive Summary

If you do decide to go the VC roadshow route (and that’s a post for another time), they do NOT want yet another 80-page plan to slog through.  Try boiling everything down to 10 slides, and better yet, into one page.  Below is a great example of an easy to use one-pager, in web app form.  It’s called plancruncher and was created by a division of Lunatech Ventures.

Ten Slides Maximum

Courtesy of the man Dave McClure (@DaveMcClure), an early investor in Twitter among other famous startups you’ve heard of, here’s what should be in your ten slides:

1. Elevator Pitch
2. The Problem
3. Your Solution
4. Market Size
5. Business Model
6. Proprietary Technology
7. Competition
8. Marketing Plan
9. Team/Hires
10. Money Milestones

Here’s his famous “How To Pitch A VC” slide deck if you want more details.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.

The topics covered are as follows: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, Web Design, SEO, Social Media, Advertising, Analytics, WordPress, Data Visualization, Videos, Negotiation, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pitching, iPhone Development, PR, Blogging, Photoshop, Pricing, Icons, Usability, Email Campaign, Textures, Landing Page, User Interfaces, Web App Building, A/B Testing, Logo, and Internet Marketing.

I’m going to stop right here and tell you to start using Instapaper (on the web, your iPhone, and even your Kindle), and creating “subject” folders to manage all your intellectual capital.  If you already have Instapaper, then it’s as easy as following each of these links, then clicking the “Read Later” button you installed to your browser.  Or, you could just bookmark this post!

UPDATE:  if you don’t have an instapaper account and are not logged in, y ou will not be able to use these links. If you want something super portable, here is my entire download-able account (an HTML file, which you can either follow the link to or right click and ‘Save As’):

seanMeverett Ultimate Entrepreneurship & Small Business Toolbox

Web Design

Even if you’re not a web designer, understanding the tiny details that separate good from great design can make all the difference in the world when it comes to increasing your sales.  How often have you left a website because it was too confusing or how often have you stuck around on another website because it was visually appealing and did things you’d never seen before?  When all it takes is a split second for someone to get distracted on the web, can you afford not to practice good design principles?

• Designing for Visibility: Redirect URL Mapping | iCrossing Digital Marketing Blog, Search Engine Advertising Blog: iCrossing
• Forget About Photoshop: 5 More Ways to Stop Using Images in Your Designs - Cherrysave
• Say NO to boring sidebars! « CreativityDen
• Newsletter Design: 50+ Great Examples | designrfix.com
• Design Proposal Software | Web Design Proposal Software | Bidsketch
• Web forms design guidelines: an eyetracking study | cxpartners
• 25 Awesome Tools for Choosing a Website Color Scheme | Design Shack
• 15 Tips for Designing Terrific Tables | Design Shack
• 20 (More) Daily Sources for Design and Dev News, Tips & Tricks | Inspired Magazine
• Convert PSD to WordPress with Divine. Convert Photoshop to WordPress theme
• 30-handy-blank-templates-for-designers
• Resources – Places to Sell Your Designs Online For Extra Income | Think Design
• 20+ Must have documents for Designers and Developers | Creative Repository
• Radial Pack – 50 Elements (Vectors & Brushes) « Media Militia
• Designing “Coming Soon” Pages – Smashing Magazine
• Applying Mathematics To Web Design – Smashing Magazine
• 50 Free UI and Web Design Wireframing Kits, Resources and Source Files – Smashing Magazine
• Free Apple iPad Icon Set for Your Website Designs
• 25 Color Combination Tools for Designers | Pro Blog Design
• Mockingbird | Wireframes on the fly
• MediaLoot Blog
• The Best of Error 404 Pages | Web Design Tutorials | Creating a Website | Learn Adobe Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver
• 90 Creative Coming Soon Page Designs and Resources | Showcases | instantShift
• 10-completely-free-wireframe-and-mockup-applications
• Adding Depth with Pixel Perfect Line Work | Web Design Ledger
• Free vector logos | Logo Design Love
• 30 Amazing Web Design Interfaces From DeviantArt | Web Design Tutorials | Creating a Website | Learn Adobe Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver
• 30 Website Navigations that Make You Wanna Click It | Web Design Ledger
• Interface Design Inspiration | 30 Impressive Ways to Design Sign-Up Page/Form | Dzine Blog
• 83 Crazy/Beautiful Letterhead and Logo Designs
• 50 Best Web Design Blog Posts In 2009 | Web Design Tutorials | Creating a Website | Learn Adobe Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver
• 50 Useful Tools and Generators for Easy CSS Development : Speckyboy Design Magazine
• 20 Design Features That Will Make Your Blog Stand Out From The Crowd! | Make Money Online
• The Most Important Design Real Estate on Your Site | Inspired Magazine
• Browser Size
• How to Design a Print-Ready Flier with Photoshop and Illustrator | Psdtuts+
• 60 Best Icon Sets From 2009 | Creative Nerds
• Breakdown of Great Web App Homepage Design – Inspect Element
• Why Your Next Website Should be Designed with Wireframes | Build Internet!
• 20 Beautiful Website Design Tutorials
• Visual Hierarchy: How Well Does Your Design Communicate? | Van SEO Design
• 10 Social Bookmarking Websites for Non-Stop Visual Inspiration | Inspired Magazine
• Showcase of Excerpts in Blog Design | Vandelay Design Blog
• App Sites – Showcase of great iPhone & Mac app websites
• 35 Websites that use transparency effectively « CreativityDen
• 50 Beautiful Free Icon Sets For Your Next Design
• Styling HTML Lists with CSS: Techniques and Resources – Smashing Magazine
• A Collection of Useful Web Design Wireframing Resources : Speckyboy Design Magazine
• Design View / Andy Rutledge – Where Wireframes Are Concerned
• The Smashing Book Is Released: Buy Now!
• Tips For Designing An Awesome Site For Your iPhone Apps
• A Guide to Mobile Web Design Tips and Tricks
• TechCrunch Homepage Design Gets Deconstructed By ZURB

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If you read any of these links on SEO, you’ll quickly realize that I’m definitely NOT performing best practice adding all these links to my website (which I’m not “no following”).  Thus, I’m giving this website’s “authority” to all these wonderful blogs and authors because I truly value their content.  Not to mention the fact that Google and the other search engine’s are probably going to flag my site as a “link farm”.  Oh well, it’s not always about link building.  Sometimes it’s about giving credit where credit’s due.

• WordPress Tip: Remove nofollow Attributes from Post Content | Digging into WordPress
• Bing - Toolbox
• How Web Video SEO is Finally Coming of Age
• New Image SEO tool
• SEOmoz | Senior Marketers Need Greater Accountability
• Link building case study
• Meaningful SEO metrics and where to find them | Analytics Advice
• 10 Goals For Link Building Campaigns: Moving Beyond “Get More Links”
• Code Snippets To Implement 301 Redirect – woorkup.com
• WordPress SEO: The Only Guide You Need
• SEOmoz | 30 SEO Bookmarklets to Save You Time
• 10 Professional Development Tips to Boost Your SEO Career
• small-business-seo-search-engine-submission-scam
• WordCamp Atlanta 2010 Advanced SEO for Wordpress
• Keyword research and mapping | SEO Chicks
• SEOmoz | Keyword Targeting: How to Employ Multiple Keywords for SEO & Conversions
• Get More Traffic: an SEO Guide for WordPress | WPblogger
• Microsoft SEO toolkit (and two other resources) — Explicitly Me – Rishi Lakhani’s Home on the Web
• Peer Review: SEO Best Practices for Duplicate Content
• 12 Ways to Improve PPC Landing Page Conversion Rates – by Christine Churchill
• SEO 101 Common Mistakes
• SEO 101: Everything You Need to Know About SEO (But Were Afraid to Ask) – Part 1 – Search Engine Guide Blog
• SEOmoz | Whiteboard Friday – Domain Authority & Page Authority Metrics
• 30 Black Hat SEO Techniques You Can Use Ethically | SEOptimise
• How to Build Links Fast: 101 Tips & Strategies | SEO Book.com
• Justin Freid – SEO and Social Media Marketing
• SEOmoz | 11 Conversion Rate Optimization Lessons Learned in 2009 (and annual moz traffic stats)
• SEOmoz | Peer Review – SEO Best Practices; Title Tags, URLs and External Links
• Huge List of Over 250 Social Media Websites | Graphic SEO Free SEO Tutorials
• SEOmoz | 7 Ways to Use the Web Developer Toolbar for SEO
• How to Use Feedburner for SEO
• Increase Search Engine Traffic
• Affordable Backlinking Packages and SEO Services CompeteSEO | ShoeMoney Marketplace
• Link Building Trends For 2010
• The Little Known Secret to Getting Page 1 Google Rankings : Marketing :: American Express OPEN Forum
• Your Free SEO Book Tool Suite
• Blog – SEO Link Wheelers | Link wheel backlinks
• SEO Basics – a knol by aaron wall
• Google’s Search-based Keyword Tool: Monetize The Long Tail of Search | Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik
• SEOmoz | The Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet
• linkable-asset-inventory-a-starting-point-for-new-link-building-campaigns-31574
• My Link Baiting Idea Generation Process | Wiep.net
• Let’s Try to Find All 200 Parameters in Google Algorithm | Search Engine Journal
• Search Engine Ranking Factors | SEOmoz
• Search-based keyword tool
• Seven sensational SEO tips for ecommerce sites | Blog | Econsultancy
• 20 of the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress
• Official Google Blog: The top ten ways to get your business ready for the holidays
• SEO is dead, long live SEO | Blog | Econsultancy
• Search Engine Optimization Services: Top 5 Reasons – Online Marketing Blog

Social Media

The most over-used term in 2009 is back for more in 2010.  Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Stumble, Reddit, FriendFeed, and…the…list…keeps…going.  Fortunately, these links represent those posts that have risen to the top of the over-written and reported pile.

• 7 Ways Posterous Improves Your Social Media Presence | Social Media Examiner
• Social Media Today | Max Your Brand With 4 Social Media Optimization Tips
• Practical Social Media Measurement: Awareness, Attention, Reach | Brand Elevation Through Social Media and Social Business | Altitude Branding
• Article:: New Chart: What Social Metrics are Organizations Monitoring and Measuring?
• Laying Out A Framework for Social Media Strategy « Social Media Musings by Tom Humbarger
• What’s Working for Social Media Marketers?
• 20 Amazing social media blogs that you may not have heard of
• Social Media Power Profiles: Is Google In Your Mix?
• Social Media Secrets and Resources Revealed - ReadWriteStart
• How to: Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic
• Great video showing ROI on social media
• The Maturation of Social Media ROI
• How To Measure Social Media ROI | DreamGrow Social Media
• MarketingProfs Store: The State of Social Media Marketing
• The Medium Is No Longer The Message, . . . You Are
• 5 Advanced Social Media Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
• HOW TO: Make Social Media Work for Non-Consumer Brands
• Showing CPGs How to Socialize
• Mashable’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses
• free-science-of-social-media-marketing-webinar.html
• 35 Must-Read Articles for Social Media Marketers | Traffikd
• Fluent: The Razorfish Social Influence Marketing Report Fluent: The Razorfish Social Influence Marketing Report

Online Advertising

Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.  It’s called arbitrage.

• MIT Study Debunks Online Ad Advantages
• Bad news for creatives: Ad quality does not dictate sales | Blog | Econsultancy
• Are Microsoft Users More Gullible When It Comes To Online Advertising?
• Ad Avoidance Up
• iPhone analytics, iPhone apps, iPhone advertising: Mobclix | How to Increase Your Advertising Revenue

Analytics

A subject close to my heart.  The more numbers the better.  The problem lies in mis-interpreting the data or over-analyzing to the point of creating optimization bias.  We’re also building an analytics web app that’s going to finally bridge the gap between on-site and off-site analytics, something never done before.  Read a bit more about it at Evolyte Analytics.

• Vanity Metrics vs. Actionable Metrics – Guest Post by Eric Ries
• ClickHeat | Clicks heatmap
• Using Click Heatmaps to Understand Your Viewers | Tutorial9
• A First Look at Some Metrics Numbers
• 3 New Ways to Measure the Social Web
• DAYTUM
• The Google Analytics Cheatsheet | Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing
• Google Analytics Hack For Export All Your Keywords | SEO Addicted
• Free Web Analytics Books: Web Analytics Demystified and The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators | Web Analytics Demystified
• Social media analytics
• Bringing Enterprise Analytics to WordPress
• Defining A Web Analytics Strategy: A Manifesto | John Lovett at Web Analytics Demystified
• HOW TO: Track Social Media Analytics
• Social Media Metrics Superlist: Measurement, ROI, & Key Statistics Resources
• SEOmoz | How To Get Past Last-Touch Attribution With Google Analytics
• Track Social Media Engagement for Any Website With PostRank
• µStat – Website value calculator, SEO and traffic estimator
• Ad.ly Launches Analytics For Sponsored Tweets
• ClickTale | Web Analytics by ClickTale | Visitor Movies, Heatmaps & Form Analytics
• Eureqa | Cornell Computational Synthesis Laboratory
• Machine Learning with Quantum Algorithms
• Searching for Benchmark

WordPress

Easy to use and infinitely customizable.  This site is built on it, you should probably have a couple built on it too.

• 15 Resources for Setting Up an E-Commerce Site with WordPress – DesignM.ag
• 10-new-wordpress-wanted-hacks-and-powerful-techniques.html
• The 15 Best WordPress Plugins to Use in 2010
• 7 Superb Social Plugins for WordPress
• Theme switch and preview plugin
• Digital Goodies Shopping Guide #2 – 25 New WordPress Themes, Under Construction Templates & Domain Names | Inspired Magazine
• 55+ Most Wanted WordPress Tips, Tricks, and Hacks
• best-wordpress-themes-2009
• How to Speed up Wordpress
• 31 Rare WordPress Themes | TutZone
• Sneak Peek at Soon to be Released Social Life WordPress Theme | Lifestream Blog
• 29 Free WordPress Themes That Kick Ass « Beyond Random
• Press75.com | Professional WordPress Themes by Jason Schuller
• For Your Clients: How to Use Wordpress
• 8 Great Blogs All About WordPress « The Communications Strategist
• Free WordPress Themes and WordPress Tutorials at Theme Lab
• Do it yourself: 12 WordPress Solutions Without Using Plugins- WebAnthology.net
• WordPress 2.9 Upgrade And Simple Tags Solution
• Best WordPress Tutorials of 2009
• My 45 must have WordPress plugins. Any to add to the list? — A View from the Isle
• Add Chat and Drag & Drop Sharing to Your Site With Meebo Bar
• 10 Outstanding Corporate WordPress Themes for Freelancers and Small Business Owners | Inspired Magazine
• Use WordPress to Create Amazing Sites – WordPress Arena
• The Coolest Blogazine WordPress Themes of 2009 | Inspired Magazine
• WordPress Themes with Unusual Uses – Web.AppStorm
• Extravagant WordPress Themes & Under Construction Templates Out in September | Inspired Magazine
• 10 Absolutely New & Stunning Portfolio WordPress Themes for Non-Designers | Inspired Magazine
• 30 Fresh & Priceless WordPress Themes Out in Octomber | Inspired Magazine
• Socialize, Connect, Share and Promote using Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Yahoo and Open ID
• 100 Premium Like But Free, Fresh WordPress Themes: Year 2009 | Graphic and Web Design Blog -Resources And Tutorials
• 100 Excellent Free WordPress Themes – Smashing Magazine
• 10 Ways to Make WordPress More Useful : Marketing :: American Express OPEN Forum

Data Visualization

A picture is worth a thousand words.

• Cool Infographics – Cool Infographics – 16 Infographic Resumes, A Visual Trend
• 15 Awesome Free JavaScript Charts / JavaScripts / SPLASHnology – Web Design & Web Technology Community
• 28 Rich Data Visualization Tools - InsideRIA
• An In-Depth Look At Pivot, Microsoft’s Newest Data Visualization Tool
• 20 Essential Infographics & Data Visualization Blogs | Inspired Magazine
• Tableau Public Brings Your Boring Data to Life – Charts - Lifehacker

Videos

YouTube didn’t blow up for nothin’ and it takes significantly less backlinks to get a better page 1 Google PageRank (i.e., SEO) than text.

• animoto – the end of slideshows
• TubeMogul.com | In-Depth Tracking, Analytics for Online Video | Web Video Syndication
• HOW TO: Add Captions To Your YouTube Videos
• 10 Youtube URL Tricks You Should Know About
• 9 Secrets of A Successful Online Video Social Media Marketing Strategy « Jeffbullas’s Blog
• How To:: Create Product Demo Videos that Get Social Media Attention: 6 Strategies to Increase Sales
• Best Screencasting Tool: CamStudio [Hive Five Followup]
• Five Tips for Producing a Demo Video for Your iPhone App

Negotiation

You negotiate every day, whether you realize it or not, with your significant other, your friends, at the workplace, even with your family.  Why not get a little better?  The secret, in one phrase, is care…but not too much.

• How to be a better negotiator | VentureBeat
• You Can Negotiate Anything * Get Rich Slowly

Entrepreneurship

This is what it’s all about.  Follow your dreams and change the world in a big way.  Believe it or not, networking is probably the most under-appreciated yet most important aspect of entrepreneurship.

• Perfection By Subtraction – The Minimum Feature Set « Steve Blank
• The Ultimate List: 40 Social Networking Sites Specifically for Small Business, Entrepreneurs, and Startups
• The Essential Startup Reader: 10 Lessons In Entrepreneurship
• » Blog Archive » Calculate This! 100 Financial Calculators Every Entrepreneur Needs
• A VC’s tips on securing seed and series A financing
• Top Ten VC Firm Websites By Traffic
• The Venture Hacks StartupList Helps Fledgling Startups Pitch Top Angel Investors
• Platforms and Networks: A Compilation of the Web’s Best Advice for Entrepreneurs
• Bizmore Adds A Blog Network To Go After The Small Business Reader

Twitter

I love twitter.  Seriously.  And the reason I love it is two-fold.  First, you can steepen your learning curve on any subject faster than any other method, and second, because I love sharing interesting things with others (hence the reason this post is ridiculously long with links).  If you’re interested in keeping up with links like these, you should follow me on twitter here:  @seanMeverett

• Rails Template: Create a Twitter Application in Seconds – Intridea Company Blog
• This Weeks Twitter Design News Roundup N.20 – Speckyboy Design Magazine
• The Best of Twitter 2009: Graphic Design Edition
• 15 Free Services to Schedule Tweets on Twitter
• HOW TO: Create Custom Backgrounds for Twitter, YouTube, & MySpace
• Twitter Cheat Sheet.pdf on iPaper By Scribd – powered by Box.net
• 12 best tools to raise your Twitter profile | News | TechRadar UK
• How to Place the TweetMeme Button Directly Into Your WordPress Blog | Anthony Licari
• New Twitter Client for Mac Packs a Powerful Punch
• Twitter Comes To Pearltrees, The Visual Social System
• Follow the Tweets – Business Insight – Wall Street Journal / MIT Sloan – MIT Sloan Management Review
• 35 Web Analytics & Internet Marketing Experts You Should Be Following (on Twitter)
• How @Flipbooks Hit 80,000 RTs : TruAction Flipbooks – marketing, event and tradeshow promotion
• HOW TO: Start and Run a Successful Twitter Chat

Facebook

Ah, the bane of my existence.  Where Farmville and Mafia Wars updates continually spam my feed, and people who think they’re sarcastically witty start their status updates with “Dear ___”, followed by unoriginal dribble or upload risque pics like they’re still on MySpace.  I’m not mad at you though, just keep uploading pictures of your cats and we’ll be kosher.

• New Study Reveals Facebook Better Than Twitter for Marketers | Social Media Examiner
• How To Create An Incentive For Visitors To Fan Your Facebook Page (Day 17) – Social media and inbound marketing for non-profits
• NutshellMail Lets Users Create Simple Email Newsletters For Facebook Fan Pages
• Facebook Fan Pages « ShoeMoney System
• Facebook Marketing: Everything You Need to Know | Social Media Examiner
• Facebook Guide Book: Mashable Launches Hub for Facebook Resources
• Ten Steps for Creating a FANtastic Facebook Fan Page : MarketingProfs
• How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans
• The 4 Types of Branded Facebook Campaigns
• What Do Seniors Do Online? Visit Facebook and YouTube, of Course [STATS]
• Apple Brings iTunes Gift Cards To Its Facebook Fans, With Help From GroupCard

LinkedIn

Yah, I know, not much content.  I do have a few videos, however, that I can’t share due to copyright constraints.

• 8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group

Pitching

If you’ve never given a presentation, or if you plan to ask a VC or Angel Investor for a bit of cash flow, then you should take a look at the link below.  I’d also recommend searching for Dragon’s Den on YouTube, which is somewhat similar to the American Idle concept, but replaces singers with entrepreneurs and Simon, Paula, and Randy with VCs.

• A VC’s Advice On How To Pitch VCs
• 17 Awesome PowerPoint & Keynote Presentation Templates – WorkAwesome

iPhone & iPad Development

Self explanatory.

• The Complete iPhone Development Toolbox | iPhone.AppStorm
• iPhoneFlow : iPhone Development Community Link Blog

Blogging & PR

If you don’t know what a blog is, you should probably just call it a day.

• 7 Simple Steps For Growing Your Blog From Scratch – SimplyZesty
• Be Your Own Publicist

Photoshop

This is a graphic designer’s greatest tool.  I don’t pretend to be anything of the sort, but I have been known to hack around with it from time to time.

• Photoshop Cheatsheets & Our Must Know Shortcuts - slodive
• Tutorial9 | Photoshop Tutorials, Photography Tuts, and Resources
• Free PSD: Facebook Fanpage Template | Fuel Your Creativity
• Free PSD Twitter Background Template | Fuel Your Creativity
• Create a Slick and Minimalist Web Layout in Photoshop
• 40 Free PSD Website Templates - slodive
• 27-must-have-starter-kits-for-web-designers
• Design an Ecommerce Website in Photoshop

Pricing

This is one of those art-and-a-science sort of things.  It’s the single “easiest” way to impact your revenue (positively or negatively).  Pricing is hard, especially dynamic pricing where you charge the highest price possible for each unique customer.  Fortunately, a few of the guides below will help you in your quest.

• dontjustrollthedice.pdf (application/pdf Object) (eBook)
• Creately Blog » How much to charge for your Web App?
• How to Price Your App – Learning from Basecamp
• What We Can Learn About Pricing From Menu Engineers – GigaOM
• Pricing Strategy, Monetization and Value Marketing Solutions for Profit & Growth – PricingWire – PricingWire – Understanding Freemium – How to Create and Grow Paying Customers
• Customers are always right, except when they are wrong

Icons

You’d be surprised how many things can be represented with a simple icon, and how these basic icons can impact behavior on the web.  For example, I recently reviewed a sign-up section of a landing page that asked for the typical information (name, email, address, etc).  The goal was to determine a way to increase the conversion rate of folks signing up.  By adding a simple lock icon with a green checkmark next to the 5 information fields, it increased the conversion rate by a staggering +50%.  That.  Is.  Insane.  Like I said, a picture’s worth a thousand words, and perception often outweighs reality.

• 11 Great Resources to Find Free Icons – DesignM.ag
• Vector Social Media Icons
• Elegant Themes Icon Pack, For Free!- Elegant Themes Blog
• 20 Free Payment Option Icons | The Roxor | Design blog for resources and inspiration
• The Best Icon Sets for Minimal Style Web Design | Freebies
• Iconfinder | Search through 122,683 icons or browse 296 icon sets
• 365icon.com – A Collection of The Web’s Highest Quality Free Icons
• 35 (Really) Incredible Free Icon Sets – Smashing Magazine
• Professional icons, web icons and stock vista icons
• 30 High Quality Free Icon Sets for Designer
• InterfaceLIFT: Mac OS X icons (by date)

Usability

You may have never heard this term before.  That’s okay, it’s a little web design specific.  Think of it like the UI (user interface) of Apple’s iPhone.  There was a ridiculous amount of thought and human interaction testing that went into the final design of how to actually use it.  For example, most phones make you push the “menu” button, followed by navigating through a hierarchy of confusing folders in order to accomplish a task.  Apple, on the other hand, transferred the most used items into apps and allowed for easy navigation throughout these apps, which included forwards/backwards arrows, consistent placing of buttons, etc. In basic terms, usability is the difference between Google’s homepage and Yahoo’s.  Google’s minimalism allows you to only do one thing, search, and not get distracted by any other tasks, which is in stark contrast to Yahoo’s over-engineered homepage.

• 20 Fantastic Usability & Conversion Analysis Tools | Spyre Studios
• Guide to Low-cost Usability Tools
• Usabilla – Transparent Usability: Lean and mean testing
• Usability Testing Toolkit: Resources, Articles, and Techniques - Noupe
• Anybody Can Do Usability (Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox)

Email Marketing

If you have an email account, chances are pretty high that you’ve received an HTML email asking you to sign up to something, buy something, or informing you of something.  There are a few best practices to understand that produce higher conversion and sharing rates, without being obtrusive/annoying to current or potential customers.

• MarketingSherpa: Email Makeover: 7 Email Optimization Tactics to Boost Revenue
• Design and Build Email Newsletters Without Losing Your Mind (and Soul) – Smashing Magazine
• How to Take Advantage of Social Media in Your Email Marketing : Technology :: American Express OPEN Forum
• 15 Clean & Effective Email / Newsletter Designs - slodive
• Small Biz Corner: Email Campaign Software

Textures

And we’re back to web design.  You’ve likely seen these during your travels across the inter-web and typically represent background details on a page or the “skin” on a specific website element.  For example, this site uses a simple intersecting line box design (not something that would traditionally be described as a texture, but same concept).  Other concepts include a wood or stone “feel”.  Just click through some of the links already!

• 7 High Resolution Stone Textures | MyInkBlog
• 100-free-stunning-bokeh-textures.html
• 100 Beautiful Free Textures – Smashing Magazine
• Smashing Texture Contest Results – Smashing Magazine

Landing Pages

If you have any sort of online presence, then a landing page becomes extremely important because it is designed to push a visitor to perform some action, whether that means signing up for a newsletter or blog RSS feed, inputting contact and demographic information, or paying for a product or service.  See the “A/B Testing” section below for more information on optimizing your landing page to increase conversion rates.

• 7 Types of Landing Page | Unbounce
• Landing Page Optimization Silver Bullets – by Tim Ash
• Conversion University Help
• How we increased the conversion rate of Voices.com by over 400% | Conversion Rate Experts
• Store That Landing Page « Grockit Blog
• 30+ principles to a better landing page design | Landing Page Optimization
• Landing Page Templates, Review Site Templates, and Graphics Made For Internet Marketers | Landing Page Authority | Landing Page Authority
• 95 Fresh Examples Of Single Page Website Designs | Inspiration | instantShift
• How To Build Your Own Single Page Portfolio Website

User Interfaces

Akin to usability, the UI is the more technical aspect of the wireframe/layout of buttons, navigation, etc.

• Showcase of Great Web App Interfaces | Webdesigner Depot
• A UI Design and Prototyping Treasure Chest | Web Design Ledger
• Product Planner – View and Create User Flows, Viral Loops, and More.
• A shorthand for designing UI flows - (37signals)

Web App Building

Basecamp from 37 Signals is the classic case study in how to build a web app.  As an example, Gmail is a web app.

• Customer Development Survey
• A simple subscription billing service made just for developers | Recurly
• Load Impact – Free web site load test
• Make Your Web Applications Addictive 5 Lessons To Learn from Foursquare
• Ruby Frameworks: What Are They And Why Should You Choose One (Which One?)
• What Second Life can teach your datacenter about scaling Web apps
• 10 Awesome Websites That Help You Discover the Best Web Apps | Inspired Magazine
• 2010 02 19 the lean startup – webstock 2010
• An exploration of the Basecamp Account (Upgrade/Billing) Screen
• Creating a Web App from Scratch
• thoughtbot : Web application development and design services
• 21 Tips to Decrease Website Server Load
• How To: Build & Launch a Design Centric Web App | Inspired Magazine

A/B & Multivariate Testing

This type of testing is extremely important as  you develop a landing page, but is also essential for your website’s design, usability, and user interface.

Conceptually, an A/B test is the most simple test you can perform.  It involves changing one specific element of a web design (e.g., color of a “sign up now” button) and sending 50% of traffic to the old design and 50% of the traffic to the new design.  Then, you calculate the difference in conversion rates and choose the final design based on the highest conversion rate.

Multivariate testing is just like it sounds, instead of testing two elements at one time, you test more than two.  Google’s Website Optimizer allows you to do both A/B and multivariate testing somewhat easily, but also for free.  Then things get really cool, because there are some services (i.e., GitHub) that allow you to optimize multiple variables in real-time so you’re constantly getting the highest conversion rate with your web design.

• 35 Resources for Getting the Most out of Google Website Optimizer
• Anne Holland’s Which Test Won? – A/B split & Multivariate Testing Know-how for marketers
• Home – genetify - GitHub
• Visual Website Optimizer – World’s easiest to use A/B, Split and Multivariate testing tool
• 55 Google Website Optimizer Tips and Tricks | Conversion Rate Optimization
• How To Segment Google Website Optimizer Tests
• An Introduction to Website Split Testing
• ABtests.com – Share A/B Testing Results. Improve your conversion today.

Logo

My suggestion is to hire a professional so you don’t get a cheesy, self-explanatory or ugly logo.  This is the first thing a customer sees…’nuff said.   Feel free to contact me and I’ll set you up with our web designer and developers, who do all our work (though not this site).

• 15 Top Logo Inspiration Galleries | Web Design Tutorials | Creating a Website | Learn Adobe Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver
• Logo Design A to Z

Internet Marketing

Marketing…but on the internet!  This includes things like Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Pay-Per Click (PPC) advertising, Social Media, web design, branding, pricing strategy, and the list goes on.  I co-founded Evolyte, which specializes in these services, feel free to contact us if you have questions about your strategy and efforts in this area.

• MarketingSherpa: Six Scientifically Proven Ways to Succeed in Office Politics
• The 8 Elements of Contagious Ideas | Dan Zarrella
• MarketingSherpa: Multichannel Testimonial Campaign Lifts Retiree Leads 267%
• Privacy: Managing the New Currency of the Social Web
• From the bleeding edge: 10 must-read scientific research papers on conversion rate optimization « Wingify Conversion Optimization Blog
• Attribution modelling: the value of a view | Blog | Econsultancy
• DiscoveryBeat videos: The masters explain how to get your app noticed
• popsugar-media-gen-y-women-trust-online-reviews-peers-more-gen-x-september-2009.jpg
• 10 Must-Do Marketing Tips for 2010 : Innovation :: American Express OPEN Forum
• The “Good Enough” Formula for Segmenting an Existing Market | The Experience is the Product | Better product management and products
• MarketingSherpa: Product Q&A Emails Get 7.5% Conversion Rate: 5 Steps to Turn Visitors into Buyers
• Article:: EmailSherpa 2009 in Review: Social Sharing, Segmentation, Optimizing Autoresponders, and More
• 11 Ways to Influence People Online and Make Them Take Action
• How to convert email addresses into name, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation – This is so Meta
• Show Adsense Only to Search Engine Visitors | TutZone
• Tracking Your Every Move on Social Media: Are You An Influencer? – Eilene Zimmerman – Selling Science - True/Slant
• Search Engine Marketing Agency | Radium
• Online Marketing Guides From TopRank
• Learning From the Best of the Best in Online Marketing - ClickZ
• Derek Perez – Call To Action; You need to have me at hello.
• White Papers #1 Info Source for Tech Buyers
• 12 Techniques to Increase White Paper Leads | Conversion Rate Optimization & Marketing Blog | FutureNow, Inc
• How To Optimize Pay Per Click Advertising & Control Costs
• MarketingSherpa: New Chart: Social Marketers Preparing for the Challenges Ahead
• Really smart marketing email – Chris Neumann
• 4 Terrific Tools for Creating Business Web Forms
• Build Hot Promotions with Wildfire | Web.AppStorm
• Internet Marketing Tools for SEO, Social Media & Online Public Relations by Raven
• ShoeMoney Internet Marketing Tools
• How To:: Improve Affiliate Performance: 5 Tips

Whew, that took a ton of time.  My goal is going to keep updating this list if folks are interested.  I’d love to hear your thoughts about these links (too many? too few?).  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about any of this or follow me and ask me on twitter here: @seanMeverett.

Via skmurphy:

Get the Product Right

• Find 30 prospects.  Set up meetings.
• Demo your idea / alpha / beta / product.
• Ask questions (lots of questions).
• Take copious notes.  Score your results.

Ask Critical Questions

• Do you have this problem?
• Does this solve your problem?
• How much would you pay for this?
• Base hit or home run?
• How would you spend $100 of our money?

Some call this the new Lean Startup religion based on building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).

I just call it efficiency.

You should follow @seanMeverett on Twitter here.