Here are my top 10 favorite sites and resources. Maybe some of these should be yours.
1. Contractortalk.com forum -- Marketing and Sales
While primarily geared to residential contractors, the real-life insights and idea-sharing here are worthwhile for anyone concerned with construction industry marketing. But if your market is primarily to the general public, you should put this forum as your primary bookmark.
2. Seth Godin's blog
Marketing guru Seth Godin offers pragmatic and insightful ideas framed within the concepts of Permission Marketing -- geared to the Internet era. Not specifically relevant to construction, but invaluable, nonetheless.
3. Google News
I know some marketing and motivational people say you should 'turn off' the news, but, heck, I am in the news business, after all. You can check topics of relevance and interest to you and deep-mine for information.
4. Linkedin.com
This to me is the most practical and useful networking and business information sharing site I've found. Facebook.com has some potential, but far too many distractions if you want to be productive.
5. The Gloucester Hockey Association
My son's minor hockey team belongs to this league -- I'm his team's manager, so need the resources here. Probably of no relevance to you except for your awareness that your life is more than work -- family and community activities are important to us.
6. Mybloglog.com
A useful resource for bloggers -- lots of analytical and referral tracking stuff. Useful if you plan to launch your own blog.
7. Service Canada Job Bank
The Canadian federal employment service doesn't charge any listing fees for employers -- it isn't the only way to find job candidates, but certainly is on my 'must use' list. (I use other specialized job boards and services, and have found the linkedin.com employment listing service effective. In the U.S. you may wish to experiment with your state employment service.)
1. Contractortalk.com forum -- Marketing and Sales
While primarily geared to residential contractors, the real-life insights and idea-sharing here are worthwhile for anyone concerned with construction industry marketing. But if your market is primarily to the general public, you should put this forum as your primary bookmark.
2. Seth Godin's blog
Marketing guru Seth Godin offers pragmatic and insightful ideas framed within the concepts of Permission Marketing -- geared to the Internet era. Not specifically relevant to construction, but invaluable, nonetheless.
3. Google News
I know some marketing and motivational people say you should 'turn off' the news, but, heck, I am in the news business, after all. You can check topics of relevance and interest to you and deep-mine for information.
4. Linkedin.com
This to me is the most practical and useful networking and business information sharing site I've found. Facebook.com has some potential, but far too many distractions if you want to be productive.
5. The Gloucester Hockey Association
My son's minor hockey team belongs to this league -- I'm his team's manager, so need the resources here. Probably of no relevance to you except for your awareness that your life is more than work -- family and community activities are important to us.
6. Mybloglog.com
A useful resource for bloggers -- lots of analytical and referral tracking stuff. Useful if you plan to launch your own blog.
7. Service Canada Job Bank
The Canadian federal employment service doesn't charge any listing fees for employers -- it isn't the only way to find job candidates, but certainly is on my 'must use' list. (I use other specialized job boards and services, and have found the linkedin.com employment listing service effective. In the U.S. you may wish to experiment with your state employment service.)
8. Google Adwords and Google Analytics
If you aren't using keyword advertising, you should start learning how, right away. The resources within Google Analytics will give you clear information about how your websites and advertising are doing in the marketplace.
9. Elance.com
If you are looking for inexpensive, offshore services (for example for things like web design) you should consider this online procurement service. However, the gap in value/price between domestic and overseas services is diminishing as various web-based services are now available.
Constant Contact is an inexpensive, easy-to-use service to oversee your email marketing and client surveys.
Obviously, I use other services and sources -- relying on financial institutions' sites to manage my companies' bank accounts and investments, and the like. And there are other sites I visit for fun, entertainment, or comic relief.
P.S. If you would like me to boil down the list to the three that are most likely to be useful to you, I would rank contractortalk.com, linkedin.com and constantcontact.com highest.
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2 comments:
Great list Mark. you used to use BetterMail as your email marketing supplier (and in fact still do on at least one of your web sites). BetterMail offers autoresponders which are critical for a good Internet marketing campaign.
Do you think constantcontact is better / easier?
Yes, we continue to use Bettermail for some functions -- Constant Contact for example will not allow attachments and the Bettermail autoresponder feature is excellent.
Constant Contact has a very easy to use inteface for managing and 'controlling' emails -- with handy templates and structures that allows for very rapid email development.
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