Shashi Bellamkonda: Hi, everybody. I am with Jay Berkowitz who is the CEO of tengoldenrules.com and a well-known expert on newsletters and forms of communication. So, I’ll let Jay talk and introduce himself in his own words.
Jay Berkowitz: Well, the Ten Golden Rules started with a presentation I gave at the Direct Marketing Association, called “The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing”. And we focused a lot on how to get people to your website and how to convert the people who come to your website into a sale or a lead, doing business to business. You just want get them to sign up to any newsletter or download a free white paper. So, everything’s focused on getting people to your site and then, converting those people into real business.
Shashi Bellamkonda: So, they – the whole internet scenario is changing so much and small businesses, what other ways do you have for them? Where do they start if they wanted to start a newsletter?
Jay Berkowitz: Well, I think, you know, the easiest thing, specifically, a lot of people say, how do I even start a website? So, the easiest thing to do is to go Network Solutions, get your domain name and there is a website builder. And you can build a simple website. And then, the most important thing is have something on your website that’s some kind of offer. Something that you’re gonna offer people for free in exchange for some contact information. So a free e-newsletter is a great place to start. And then use that e-newsletter develop articles that are gonna sit on your website. And those articles are gonna contain the words and phrases, and the business information people are searching for. So, make the articles really, really great. The kinds of things people would send to a friend. And send that out as an e-newsletter as well as leave the articles resident on your website because that’s really good spider food. You know, the search engine spiders are looking for words that people are searching for. So, you got to have those words on your website. And the newsletter is a great place to do both. Give something for people to sign up for in your website, and give you the discipline to regularly add those words - that content to your website.
Shashi Bellamkonda: And you’re in a book called, “The Ten Golden Rules”. And you also have a lot of resources on your website. What is the website address that people should go to for those resources?
Jay Berkowitz: The website is simple, it’s www.tengoldenrules.com. You can access - find our book. You can find our blog, we have a free blog, and a podcast which is the area I’m really passionate about. We do audio interviews with experts such as yourself because you’re gonna be interviewed next. And we have tons of interviews with people like Matt Katz, the engineer from Google. Rohit Bhargava who just brought a great book from personality not included. And we interviewed Craig Newmark, the founder of craigslist.com. So, you can find all of that at www.tengoldenrules.com.
Shashi Bellamkonda: And you also – you were in Washington, DC because you’re a keynote speaker at a conference. Tell us a little bit about that and what did you about today.
Jay Berkowitz: This conference is called SIPA, the Specialized Information Publishers Association. So, it’s all about companies that publish e-newsletters and physical newsletters. And that’s a core part of their business – companies like Motley Fool, thestreet.com, e-newsletter publishers and newsletter publishers. And they make most of the revenue from content, publishing content. And today, I talked about ten tips for marketing your website and planning for a recession. And we talked about some of the things that businesses need to start putting in place as the economy gets a little tougher here in the United States.
Shashi Bellamkonda: I think, that will be also my thing. Everybody needs to have those ten tips. I’m sure it’s there on your blog, on your website.
Jay Berkowitz: Yeah. We have an article and a press release about “Ten Things You Can Do to Plan for the Recession.”
Shashi Bellamkonda: Right. When I post this, I actually give the url post so everybody knows about it. Thank you very much, Jay. How are you enjoying Washington, DC in general?
Jay Berkowitz: Great so far. I hope to get out of the hotel and we’re gonna go for a dinner tonight.
Please contact us for more information on the release date of the Ten
Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Workbook, written by our lead internet
marketing consultant Jay Berkowitz, CEO, TenGoldenRules.com.
