GAME CHANGER?

Conference calls have always enriched me because I feel the power of many vs. the power of just me!

One particular conference call stands out as a real eye-opener to me: A recent call with my partners in LA and New York...I'm in Houston, TX.

Anyway, I started a post just today where I kind of put the idea out there that local internet marketing in general needs a sort of "Best Practices" or industry standards in place. After exploring the idea with a few WF members, and taking a shower (that's where all the ideas come to me!), I set up a call with my partners. The original idea was to basically contribute to this forum to maybe see if there was a need for bringing the community together...maybe even organize a movement to encourage everyone to create and use a common system...

Yeah, that's not going to happen. As noble as it sounds, there are too many variables to consider.

But...there has been a breakthrough! In our latest conference, the idea came up that we organize a new company...WHAT? What kind of company? The kind that could give our real competitors a run for their money! So we really tackled some of the big obstacles, and we came up with an idea. It may not be the next Twitter or Facebook, but it does have big potential.

The biggest obstacle is...YOU! We have to sell YOU on the idea, because YOU are the key!

How many "individual" local internet marketers are out there? Hundreds? Thousands? Let's take my city, for example...our clients in Houston tell me all of the time that they get solicited by folks telling them they could get them "to the front page of Google" EVERYDAY, sometimes 10-20 times per day. I'm sure many of these are people on this forum or maybe those "Main Street Marketing" guys and gals. Are YOU one? I know I was!

So, are these "individuals" our real competitors? NO! Folks, have you ever heard of AT&T, Citysearch, or Yelp? Yeah, I thought so. Although, we get our clients on these sites, as it's imperative that we do for citation value, they are our real competition! They have clients everywhere paying anywhere from $200-$300 per month to $5,000-$6,000 per month...nationwide and worldwide. Do you want to know why? They have resources. They have a system in place that has grown throughout the years. They have sales teams who do nothing but sell. They have support teams, and web presence teams.

And how do we compete against them? We don't...individually. But we really can...if we come together!

Why do I think we can compete? Because I hear the war stories everyday! "I pay so much money every month and I'm not sure how advertising with AT&T really affects my bottom line!" OR "I've tried that online stuff and nothing really happened." How many of you have heard, "I have a website already, thanks anyway," or, "We're all set with our online stuff."??? We hear it all the time. But we see their website on page 3 or worse. I think we can offer our services which ACTUALLY WORK!!!

I have to admit here that LocalDominate has been in business for 5 years and we only have just over 30 clients. The reason is obvious, we don't sell! All of our business has come through private word of mouth...one client tells one of his friends on the golf course...blah, blah, blah. We have been successfull in getting every one of our clients in the top five of Google's SERPS for every keyword phrase we have contracted for! And we've been getting by. None of us have had to work for anyone for over two years. Just paying the bills is not working for us anymore. We think it is time to step up the game!

We know who our competition is and we know that we can compete because we offer a service that works.

How is "coming together" going to allow us to compete against the big guys? Good question. This will put us in a position of having "resources". We have the working knowledge to give any client positive results.

Sure, you could probably do this on your own and be your own boss; like I have for a while now. But you will be spread thin doing all of the things it takes to do what you do. First, you have to know what you're doing, or learn it without getting caught up in the hype of the latest greatest thing! Then, you have to find prospects. With a pocket full of prospects, you have to start making your presentations. Then you have to close deals! Once you close a deal, you have to start your keyword research. Then you have to search for and establish citations for your client online. Next is organizing how you are going to change or modify your client's website...and then do it. All the while you are coordinating with your client about content you can use for various marketing avenues (articles, videos, press releases, etc.) Hey, did we mention starting a rank checking system for them and auditing their current online efforts? The list goes on...and on...and on! Okay, so you have another client. You start over while attending to your current client base. Eventually, your profit margin flatlines, because you can't handle any more clients. Then it hits you! You can outsource! You reasearch, interview, hire, train...and still maintain your current clients. You get through that hurdle, and it's back to prospecting and the cycle begins again with so much more to worry about at this point. Does any of this sound familiar?

How many of you out there are serious about becoming part of something that will be a TRUE GAMECHANGER? How many of you would rather do the one thing or the couple of things you are good at and love doing? How would it feel to know that you won't have to worry about soliciting another client? Or if that's what you love to do, how would you like to spend your days AWAY from the computer and talking to PROSPECTS!???

We are proposing that YOU do what YOU want to do! And be part of something bigger than ourselves that really gives the small business owners you serve anyway the best exposure online that money can buy.

A group of us are going into development with this idea even as you are reading this! We are organizing this company from the ground up, right now. We hope you can feel it! If you can, and would like to either contribute or become a part of this on the ground floor, I ask that you commit to doing two things:

1) Write something here, on this thread, about what you would want to do in the scheme of things (write about what you are good at or what you would like to do)

and

2) Tell someone else about this thread.

I will commit to answering every post AND I will update this thread with the lastest development as it happens.

This will be OUR conference call!